


My life

by Yosoloyo



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-17
Updated: 2019-09-17
Packaged: 2020-10-20 07:35:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 33,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20671646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yosoloyo/pseuds/Yosoloyo
Summary: DO NOT READ! THIS IS JUST FOR ME, TO EMPTY SPACE IN MY FLASH DRIVE, DO NOT READ! IT'S HORRIBLE!





	My life

**Author's Note:**

> DO NOT READ! THIS IS JUST FOR ME, TO EMPTY SPACE IN MY FLASH DRIVE, DO NOT READ! IT'S HORRIBLE!

Honda had invited Jou to a vacation on a remote spot with himself and Anzu, all with the excuse that they hadn’t spent much time together and they needed to catch up and let the other couples do “couplie” stuff before Bakura went on another mission, and Yugi and Atem involved them in their wedding planning. It sounded suspicious at first, why Honda and Anzu and not Honda and Miho? Jou was pretty sure they were dating, at least that’s what they told everyone, and Anzu was still looking for her other half, so why go with 2 guys to a remote location if she was looking for that special one? It didn’t sound good at all, but Honda was one of his best friends, his oldest friend, and he wanted to trust him one more time. Was it worth it? Lately, when Sara had been around, he had felt something different. He was well aware that the part of Seto that had dominated her life for so long, was mostly gone, and her actual behavior was who she truly was, and he had to admit, he quite enjoyed her company. She was funny in a witty way, nice, kind, polite, had beautiful smile, and a childish enthusiasm for the littlest things that he couldn’t quite understand, but appreciated nonetheless. Malik had tried to explain it to him by saying that to her, all these things were brand new, Seto had taken over most of her life, and experiences outside of the mansion, so she was in a part, discovering everything because she had never experienced it before herself. He could understand because that’s how he had felt the first time Ishizu let him out, and how he felt whenever Marik took over, like things that were happening to him were out of his control and he could do nothing to appreciate, change, or do anything when Marik was in control. Jou figured that that was a “crazy possessed experience” that he never wanted to go through again, but talking with Malik seemed to get easier and better every time, and they were becoming close friends. Atem had noticed that there seemed to be a special connection between Jou and Sara, unacknowledged by both parties, but obvious to everyone around them. He still remembered how Sara had been freed from Seto.  
FLASHBACK  
Kaiba and Jou were at it again, but this time, they almost came to blows when Kaiba insulted not only Serenity, but had told Jou that he would end up exactly like his father, and it would be much better if he just killed himself now instead of making other people suffer due to his mediocrity. Jou had tried to punch Kaiba, and right before he stopped the fist, he froze and screamed in pain. To everyone else, it looked like Jou had gotten in a pretty good hit that made Kaiba yell like that, but Jou knew that that wasn’t the case, he hadn’t touched Kaiba at all! Then an image, blurry but persistent, of a crying girl, begging for his help, took over Jou, and he did the only thing he could think of, he ran away. The image would not leave his mind, it was clearer by the second, but he tried to shove it away from himself. The bell rang, and they went back to class, all except Kaiba, who had gone who knew where. After school was over, Yugi received a frantic phone call from Mokuba, asking him to come to the mansion as soon as it was possible, because Seto was in a catatonic state, and the doctors didn’t know what had caused it or how to reverse it.  
The whole gang decided to go and support Mokuba during this time, all except Ryou, who wanted to wait for Bakura to call her from wherever he was this time, and she preferred to do it from the comfort of her home. Malik went to get Ishizu and Odion to see if they could help, and they’d all go to the Kaibas together.  
Mokuba opened the door before they could even knock and took them to Seto’s room, where he lay, absolutely immobile, eyes wide open but sightless, chest gently rising and falling, but no other sign of life. The girls were slightly freaked out, but Jou nearly passed out when he saw the massive screw on Kaiba’s neck, just like Frankenstein.  
“No wonder he always wears those turtlenecks, with that thing on his neck, people would freak out! Why is it there?” Jou asked Mokuba.  
“What are you talking about Jou?”  
“That massive screw or whatever it is on his neck, what else?” he pointed to the obvious piece of metal on Kaiba’s neck.  
“There’s nothing there Jou, stop kidding around” chastised Anzu, and Yugi nodded in approval, Jou was out of line with that joke.  
But Mokuba just gawked at him and started jumping up and down nearly shouting “Jou can see it, Jou can see it, she’s safe!”  
Just then, Malik arrived with Ishizu and her husband Odion, and he asked the oddest question yet “Where’s Kaiba and who is she?”  
“You can see Sara?” now Mokuba almost fainted, but changed his mind and tackled Malik so hard he fell over, with an overexhuberant Mokuba hugging him to death.  
“Can somebody explain to me what is going on?” groused Honda. “Jou is talking about a screw or something and now Malik and Mokuba are talking about Kaiba like he is a girl, which we all know she is not, and…” but Jou cut him off.  
“You’re right Malik, this is a girl” he approached the bed and when he touched the screw, it seemed to disappear into thin air, startling him, but what was more surprising was the change in Kaiba, because he was, in fact, a girl.  
“Mokuba? What is going on?” the girl who used to be Kaiba asked groggily, touching her neck where the screw used to be.  
“Sara, oh Sara, you’re free, you’re free” and Mokuba jumped onto the bed and glomped the now crying girl. Ishizu decided that the best course of action for the moment would be to leave the two siblings alone and ask their questions later, but Honda had a funny look on his face, and wouldn’t budge until Atem and Jou dragged him out.  
After what seemed hours but had been just a few minutes, Mokuba and ex-Kaiba were ready to answer the friends’ questions. Apparently, Sara and Mokuba were adopted by Gozaburo when she won against him at the orphanage, but Gozaburo wanted a boy, not a girl, so in a revolutionizing experiment, he created a whole new body that would take over Sara’s body, a new personality fit for a Kaiba, ruthless, mean, and powerful, but the new body would need a soul, so that was the reason why Sara was kept alive. In some weird way, it was like Malik’s experience with Marik, and Ishizu thought that it was very possible, since he had been able to see Sara for who she really was, and Jou had seen the screw nobody else had, since he had been possessed by Marik himself. Soon a heated argument broke between Honda, Anzu, Malik and Mokuba. Both Malik and Mokuba were defending Sara’s behavior towards the gang as something she had no control over, while Honda and Anzu refused to believe that such behavior was solely an invention of Gozaburo, and Sara herself was responsible for most of it. Atem, Ishizu and Odion were deep in conversation over the probability of dark magic having been involved in the process, being that it mimicked so closely Malik’s possession, and Yugi was trying to be the usual peacemaker without much success. Sara was quiet, and refused to get involved, and Jou just kept stealing glances at her, trying to reconcile the fact that the person who had made his life miserable all through high school was apparently gone, and there was this completely new person in his place, and tried to keep up with the argument, since Honda and Anzu kept trying to involve him in it, because Kaiba and Jou had been at each other’s throats for years. Finally, Sara yelled ENOUGH and it startled them so much, everyone stopped talking, including the ones that weren’t arguing in the first place.  
“Believe what you want, I am Sara Harper and…” but a scream of pain cut her off, and Roland took over, trying to kick them all out while preventing them from seeing what had happened. Mokuba wanted both Malik and Jou to stay, but Honda dragged Jou away, so only Malik ended up staying. Jou never knew what had happened, Malik never shared with anyone, and Mokuba didn’t know or pretended not to. There were only 2 weeks left of school by then, so everyone got busy preparing for the exit exams, and Seto/Sara just attended remotely. Nobody knew how she fooled the teachers into thinking that Sara was Kaiba, or how they managed it at Kaiba Corp., but once exams were over, they got busy preparing for graduation and planning their summer. Anzu was accepted at Carnegie Hall, Bakura was still doing his stint in the military, so Ryou decided to go to college online just in case they had to move again. Everyone else got in the Community College, except Honda, who decided to go to trade school to become a mechanic.  
Since they had only this one last summer before Anzu would leave, the gang tried to spend as much time together as they could, and soon Miho joined, since now she was dating Honda. Yugi tried to invite Mokuba and Sara to as many as their gatherings as she could, but was turned down the first few times due to the announcement of Kaiba’s retirement and the need to find a replacement for him as soon as possible. Soon though, they started to accept, and that’s how Jou found out that Sara was a completely different person from Kaiba, and Malik was a part of the group now more than ever, because those two seemed glued at the hip. Honda wasn’t too happy with the situation, and would either show up late or not show up at all, and Anzu soon got busy with work and practice to bother coming, so soon, the group, instead of growing, simply shifted its members.  
END FLASHBACK  
They had graduated just a little over a month ago, Kaiba Corp. now had a new CEO while Kaiba took a sabbatical to create new games and technology, and the board of directors took control over the day to day management instead of choosing a new CEO, since they all hoped that Kaiba would soon return. Jou was lost in his thoughts, he wasn’t sure that this vacation with Honda was a good idea after all. Honda had been so rude and aggressive towards Sara to the point of making her cry and leave more than once, but nobody knew what their last conversation had been like, all they knew was that Sara had left, white as a sheet, and Honda had said smugly: “I knew she wasn’t as good as you all want to think. She’s a baby killer”, but didn’t care to elaborate. From that moment on, whenever Honda would show up, Sara and Mokuba would leave immediately, no explaining or anything, they just got up and left, until last week, when they found out that Ryou was expecting.  
FLASHBACK  
The gang minus Honda and Anzu was hanging out at Burger World, ready to order, when Ryou got up and left in a hurry, with a worried Bakura looking at her but not daring to follow. Sara just smiled, and got up to talk to Ryou. When they came back, Ryou was teary eyed, but both had a huge smile on their faces.  
“You should tell Bakura first, don’t you think?” and Ryou nodded, with a watery smile, motioning to Bakura to follow her. Sara would not divulge what the conversation might be about, but Mokuba guessed, and he was giggling like crazy, until they came back.  
“So…” Jou said, too impatient to wait any longer.  
“Well…” Ryou started, red as a tomato, when Bakura shouted “I AM GOING TO BE A DAD!!!!” they were all floored.  
“We didn’t know that…”  
“CONGRATULATIONS!”  
“How? When?”  
They were all talking at the same time until Sara, with a very Kaiba gesture, quieted them and asked: “These things happen between married couples”.  
Pandemonium broke. Nobody knew that they were married, and had been for over a year, right before Bakura had gone on one of his most dangerous missions, as a protection to Ryou if anything were to happen to him, at least that was how they convinced her father to allow her to marry while still a minor, and marry a 20-year-old special ops man. The only proviso he had given them was to keep it a secret from their friends until they had all graduated school, or he would take Ryou somewhere that not even Bakura with all his skills would ever find her again. They agreed, and things were going great, they didn’t mind not telling the gang, they weren’t that close yet, but now that they were closer, it felt good to share. Ryou had no idea how Sara had figured it all out, but before she could explain anything, Honda came followed by Anzu, and said: “Ryou, you better stay away from her, she’s a baby killer”. Mokuba was livid, he didn’t understand why anyone would call his sister that, Malik punched Honda, breaking his nose, and he simply picked up Sara, who had fainted, and followed by Mokuba, went to the waiting limo. Everyone wanted to know why Honda would call Sara by that name, so he finally told them. His dad had had Sara investigated, because Honda had had a bad feeling about her for a very long time, but Seto Kaiba was too powerful to be meddled with, while Sara Harper was a nobody. It had taken a lot longer than expected, her records were very well protected, but after some bribery and threats (not something anyone admitted doing but it was obvious), the fact that Sara had had an abortion at the age of 13 came to light. The worse part of all was that she had waited until her seventh month of pregnancy, a perfectly viable baby according to the doctor, a baby who had lived for 3 hours, and would have been fine if she hadn’t killed it. Everyone had different opinions on the matter, Anzu sided with Honda against Sara, Ryou vehemently believed that there was more to the story, and Bakura agreed with her, he had amazing instincts and he knew that Sara would never do something like that, even if it had been years ago. Yugi and Atem were torn, and Jou wondered what Honda had against Sara that would make him ask his dad, a policeman, to investigate her. Honda took Jou’s silence as agreement, patted him on the back telling him: “I knew you would see it my way”, but then Anzu gasped. Malik was there, supporting Sara, and Mokuba couldn’t stop crying. Malik wanted to defend her, even though he was unaware of all the facts, but before anybody could say anything, Sara cut them all off, surprising them with her statement: “Honda is right, I am a baby killer, I killed my beautiful baby boy, I killed my amazing Kat… I killed him, and I don’t deserve another chance or a friend, I am sorry. You two should stay here with your friends. Honda, I apologize for Malik, his loyalty is misplaced” and she left, everyone dumfounded and unable to move. Mokuba and Malik ran after her, but were too late, the limo already had left.  
“I just figured out how she can be such a good liar, she believes the lies herself, so in a way, she doesn’t lie” said Bakura. “Ryou, we should go home and make an appointment with the doctor at the base, bye guys” and with that, they left.  
“What did he mean she doesn’t lie? What we know about her has always been lies, and she’s a baby killer to boot!” yelled Anzu, gaining an approving “hear, hear” from Honda.  
“I have to agree with Bakura, Sara was and probably is still devastated over the loss of her baby, but she is convinced she killed him somehow and…”  
Honda cut him off “don’t try to defend her just because you want to be on Yugi’s good side or make good with Bakura!”  
“What do you mean Atem?” asked Jou curiously.  
“Sara said ‘my beautiful baby boy’, she even had a name for him, nobody who is planning on having an abortion names the fetus, no matter how long they’ve waited. She loved and still loves that baby, but feels responsible for his death. He lived for 3 whole hours, that must have been devastating for her. 3 hours to have, to hold, and a lifetime to mourn.” Atem shook his head sadly, and got up to leave, Yugi following close behind, with tears in her eyes.  
“She didn’t kill that baby, I know it, she loved her baby, more than even me. I remember a time when Sara would just start crying and keep saying ‘my baby’, over and over, would hug me and hold me for hours, and would not let me even sleep by myself. I always thought she was worried about losing me because Gozaburo had died recently, and she was worried, but I think it was because of her baby”.  
“I’ll take you home, let’s go” said Malik.  
“Maybe we should have called you Mutt and not Jou, you’re such a loyal little dog” Jou and Malik growled at Honda in unison.  
“I don’t abandon my friends when they need me most. Sara was the first one to befriend me, before any of you, she’s been there for me through thick and thin, and now it’s my turn to try and repay her for it.”  
“What does he mean?” asked Jou, stopping Mokuba from leaving.  
“Sara had times when she wasn’t Seto, and during those times, she did many things, hidden from everyone, one of them, was befriend Malik over letters, phone calls, emails… I know because I caught her once, and she told me that the only way she could have friends was if the other person had nobody else” Jou dropped his arm, and Mokuba followed Malik to get a taxi back to the mansion. Nobody saw the trio for over a week after the incident, even though they tried several times, and then Honda came up with the idea for the trip.  
END FLASHBACK  
It was just three days before Jou was going to leave when he finally saw Mokuba at the park, apparently on his own. When he approached to say hello, Isono seemed to come out of nowhere, grab him, and take him towards a bench, where now he saw Malik and Sara seating, Malik holding her tight. They both looked up when they saw Isono approach them with Mokuba in tow, and Sara visibly stiffened when she heard Jou was approaching. Malik and Mokuba seemed to want to go right away, so he hurried to meet them, but there was no need, Sara was ready to face the music.  
“Where have you guys been? We’ve been trying to talk to you since the other day and…” Isono took a protective stance in front of Sara, and asked in a menacing tone of voice. “What business do you have with my daughter?” ‘Daughter?’ thought Jou, he didn’t know that the bodyguard was also Sara’s father, he thought Sara’s and Mokuba’s parents were dead.  
“It’s alright dad, no need to go mama bear on Mr. Jounouchi here. He has every right to talk to Mokuba and Malik, they’re his friends after all”.  
It was all nicely and kindly said, but it cut Jou to the core, ‘Mr. Jounouchi’, Malik and Mokuba were his friends but she wasn’t? Why would it hurt so much?  
“Sara, I just, I… I just wanted to tell you that we miss all of you, and we want you to know that your past doesn’t matter to us and…”  
“Mr. Jounouchi…” she began.  
“My friends call me Jou” she visibly froze at his interruption.  
“I know” she responded softly, almost inaudibly “I know what your friends call you, you don’t need to keep reminding me. Maybe I’ll walk home. Dad, you can stay here with Mokuba and Malik, I’m sure their friend wants to talk to them.” She got up and left. Isono was furious and teary eyed at the same time.  
“How could you? I thought you were her friend!” yelled Mokuba, hitting Jou repeatedly. It was a good thing Jou had been in a gang, and could withstand the barrage of hits from the angry teen, but if Malik or Isono decided to join, he wasn’t sure he could handle it.  
“I am her friend, I am your friend too, I don’t know what you’re talking about!”  
“The letters, and phone calls, and messages, and the disgusting gifts…” said Malik, venom in his voice, and hatred in his eyes.  
“Letters? Gifts? WHAT??” now Jou was more confused than ever.  
“It looks like we were duped, and we were so angry at those spiteful messages that we didn’t think some of those statements might be lies. I just wonder why would they involve Mr. Jounouchi here”.  
“Jou, call me Jou.”  
“We should go somewhere private to talk, maybe the mansion?” offered Mokuba, willing to mend the fences with the gang, but not before clarifying the situation with Jou.  
“No, let’s go to my apartment. Sara might show up at the mansion before we’re done, and I don’t think she is ready to face Jou here any time soon”.  
Isono agreed with the plan, and made sure that one of his security team kept an eye on Sara, before motioning the boys to the waiting limousine. Once they were comfortably seated in Malik’s living room, holding steaming cups of tea, Jou started the questioning.  
“Okay, what letters and gifts are you talking about? The gang and I have been trying to see you guys since you all left the other day. Ryou is sick with worry, and the doctor put her on bed rest because she was at a risk to lose the baby, and Bakura hasn’t left her side, but he calls every day to make sure Ryou doesn’t worry about Sara so much. Yugi and Atem are waiting to get a hold of you guys because they wanted to plan the wedding with Sara, Yugi claims she has impeccable taste!”  
“Well, two days after the incident Sara started receiving notes on the mail calling her baby killer, liar, and other things. Then, about 5 days ago, the first gift appeared: dead flowers, then a funeral wreath, and they kept coming. We have no idea how they get past security, but she seems to receive most of them by strangers, saying that a friend has something for her. Yesterday, she received 2 ‘gifts’: a dead baby mouse, and a decapitated doll”. Jou’s eyes were bulging, and he was ready to hurl.  
“She showed me part of the notes” Malik continued “and in all of them there was this sentence: ‘don’t forget, my friends call me Jou, and you’ll never be one of them”.  
“I didn’t write anything like that! And a dead mouse and decapitated doll? Who’d be so cruel to do such a thing?”  
“Seto Kaiba and you used to be sworn enemies, who is to say that the hatred hasn’t transferred to Sara? You were doubtful that such a difference was possible, you admitted so yourself”  
“I know, but lately, I don’t know… she’s grown on me. She’s funny, and I miss her jokes. They can be cutting if she wants, but she’s usually kind and thoughtful, and only uses those cutting remarks to put people in their place” he smiled, reminiscing such an instance, when a waitress had gotten overly flirty with Bakura, making Ryou uncomfortable. She had simply pulled her shirt tighter around her and complained of that cold breeze. Nobody understood what she meant, but Malik, who started laughing his head off. ‘I didn’t know they had such powerful fans here, but I must say I’m impressed they aren’t blowing hot air’, Malik was almost in tears, everyone was clueless, and Ryou was thankful that the waitress directed her attention to Sara instead of her husband. When she left to get their orders, they all wanted to know what she was talking about, but she simply smiled. Malik just commented that ‘those lashes were almost as big as fan blades, which probably pushed all the hot air out of the way’ so then they understood. When the waitress came back, Bakura put a menu in front of her face and said, dead serious ‘Sara, you’re a genius! That annoying breeze has finally stopped’, and kissed Ryou long and deep, all while holding the menu in front of the embarrassed and furious waitress. Sara was always like that, even though sometimes the only one who got the joke was Malik, and once he explained it, it lost part of the humor, but it was enjoyable to try and figure out the nuances in her speech. She never seemed to be serious, a polar opposite of Kaiba, and that was why Jou had an easy time accepting that Kaiba and Sara were truly two very different people. Honda had a harder time, he didn’t understand any of the jokes, even when they explained them to him, until they finally gave up and stopped explaining the fun things Sara had said or done to both Honda and Anzu, the former due to lack of understanding, and the latter due to lack of trying to accept the new member of the gang as a friend.  
“I like Sara, she is a friend, and it hurts me to think that she doesn’t agree with me, or that someone is using our rocky past to prevent her from being our friend” he was well aware of the only 2 people who could do such a thing, because outside of the gang, nobody knew that Sara and Seto used to be one and the same. “I just don’t know what to say to her whenever Honda or Anzu start going on about what happened and…”  
“She didn’t kill her baby, Gozaburo did”.  
“WHAT?” three voices said at once.  
“Gozaburo killed her baby. I never told anyone, not even Sara. She never wanted to talk about her little one, whom she named a secret name, the name of a boy she liked, one she tried to help as much as she could. I still don’t know to this day who the boy was, but I am pretty sure she’s still in love with that boy. I know it is one of your gang. But that isn’t here nor there. Are you aware of the abuse that Sara suffered at Gozaburo’s hands? I am aware that you found out some of it from Seto’s side, but did you know about Sara’s side?” Malik looked down and nodded. He had found out some bits and pieces through the emails and phone calls they had exchanged over time, and more as Sara sometimes had had flashbacks while they had been together, but he didn’t know everything and had never asked. Jou and Mokuba knew nothing, and Malik thought it might be better if they never found out, but he was outvoted by everyone else, the more they knew, the better they could help her.  
“Sara was sexually abused for years, and Gozaburo was the father of her babies. Yes, babies. She had a miscarriage just a few weeks into the pregnancy, she is unaware of that one, and I’d prefer for it to stay that way. My wife and I know because the doctor told Gozaburo, and he confided in me to make sure that the doctor would keep his mouth shut. The second pregnancy went well. Sara was unaware of it until almost the fifth month, when she felt the baby move for first time and she freaked out. She went to my wife, Greta, crying her eyes out, freaked out, because she was getting so fat, and now her fat was moving inside her. Greta laughed, we hadn’t realized how innocent she truly was. Gozaburo was aware of her pregnancy, but hoped that it would resolved on its own, just as the prior one, but as time passed by, he realized that there was an even more cruel way to keep Sara under control: he’d let her find out about the baby, and then, he’d kill it. Just before her thirteenth birthday, he asked a doctor to come and cause an abortion, because the baby wasn’t wanted. He bribed him, blackmailed him, pretty much forced him to make sure that the baby would be born and would die on her birthday. That was something that doctor would live to regret, but not Gozaburo. 2 weeks after Sara lost her baby, she took over the company and Gozaburo killed himself. After that, both my wife and I tried to talk to Sara about her loss, about how Gozaburo had killed her baby, but she refused to listen. She said we were trying to be kind, but the doctor had been very clear about it being her fault by eating birthday cake. To this day, she won’t eat cake for her birthday or even celebrate it. Whoever brought all of this up, has caused her unnecessary grief and pain. She is innocent, and she needs to know that. She won’t listen to us, but maybe, just maybe, you can find a way to let her know that she didn’t cause her baby’s death, just maybe…” Isono couldn’t continue, the tears were too much to hold back any longer. Mokuba had been crying for a while, and Malik had gotten up long ago, so they couldn’t see how the tale affected him. Jou was torn between overwhelming sadness, unmeasurable hatred towards Honda, Anzu, and Gozaburo and a good measure of self-loathing. The ringing of a phone interrupted all of their thoughts: Ryou was in the hospital, the risk of a miscarriage was high, and Bakura needed their support, and needed Sara there ASAP. Isono took them to the hospital, and they were surprised when they found Sara already there, holding a sobbing Ryou, and patting Bakura’s hand at the same time. The new arrivals were unsure of what was going on, but found out soon when Yugi told them, teary eyed, that Ryou had lost the baby. Unfortunately for everyone, Honda arrived right then, and said: “I told you Ryou, she’s a baby killer” but then, Honda was flat on his back, knocked out by none other than Mokuba.  
“My sister did NOTHING of the sort” and left in a huff, followed by a very proud Isono. Jou simply moved Honda out of the way and went to talk to the surprised Yugi and Atem, while Sara kept trying to console Ryou the best she could. After a while, she fell asleep in her arms, but didn’t want to relinquish her hold on Sara, so Bakura gently pried her off, and held her in Sara’s place. Nobody dared to say anything, it was too heartbreaking at the moment, and they weren’t sure what was the appropriate thing to say. When Honda finally woke up, Jou grabbed one of his arms, while Malik grabbed another, and removed him from the room before he could wake up the exhausted patient or her now asleep husband.  
“I think it would be better for me to leave before they come back, thank you for calling me Yugi”.  
“Don’t leave me, please, Sara…” Ryou had woken up without them noticing, and Sara went back to her side and held her once again, waking Bakura in the process. By then, Jou and Malik had returned, and met Mokuba and Isono outside the door. They were trying to decide when and if it would be a good idea to share Isono’s knowledge with the rest of the gang or just Sara, and let her decide. In the meantime, Anzu had arrived, and was yelling at everyone for kicking Honda out for no reason while the no good baby killer was there doing who knows what with their dear friend. Yugi was usually calm, quiet and collected, but this was too much even for her, so she took matters in her own hands. With a swift tap to her neck, she knocked Anzu off, and let her drop to the ground, not caring who saw.  
“She was getting on my nerves. Ryou and Bakura need Sara more than they need anyone else at the moment, because she knows the pain of loss, and nobody is going to stop them from getting whatever comfort they can, not while I am around” and went back inside, where Atem proceeded to kiss her senseless, and Bakura cheered from Ryou’s bed.  
“I guess they don’t need to know just yet, but Sara needs to hear it, I just don’t know who’d be the best one to tell her” mused Isono, looking between Malik and Mokuba.  
“I will tell her, we don’t have the best of history together, so she cannot doubt the fact that what I am telling her isn’t for my own gain, don’t you think?” queried Jou, and they had to agree. Isono had a thoughtful look on his face, but readily agreed. He had considered Sara and Mokuba his children for years, even while Gozaburo was still alive. Greta had been the one to clean her and help her after one of the sessions with Gozaburo, whether it was studying or “fun”, she was always there to help. They tried several times to say something to save her pain, but their efforts were always thwarted by their cruel employer, so they stayed put to help them the best they could. Gozaburo trusted them completely, and that allowed them to care for the siblings, and help Sara with her schemes to make certain people’s lives easier: she got Jou’s father help, and provided him with an apartment at a ‘reduced rate’ (Sara pretty much paid for it, so Jou wouldn’t have to work), befriended Malik and found him the best tutor available so he could catch up with his studies in case he decided to attend school later on, helped Honda’s sister with her infertility issues, found the best eye doctor available for Shizuka and increased the amount of money the tournament winner would earn to make sure there was enough to pay for the surgery, remodeled the outdated shop for Solomon while he had been gone on vacation, and dozens of other ‘little things’ that she did, that nobody ever knew about. She was a kind hearted woman, and forgiving herself for the past would be something he’d love to see happening. Isono was extremely thankful to Bakura and Ryou for trusting her in this difficult time for their family, so he set to do what he knew Sara would want him to do: find the best doctor available to make sure Ryou wouldn’t have to suffer such a loss again. And within 2 hours of setting out to find such a doctor, he was examining Ryou and found a probable cause and a possible solution, making both prospective parents extremely happy and thankful.  
Jou was getting antsy. After finding out more about Sara and her incredible pain and loss, he wanted to talk to her NOW to at least try and alleviate the guilt that she had felt for years for no other reason than a cruel man wanted to make her miserable. Atem saw his nervousness, and asked him what was wrong.  
“I need to talk to Sara, but she’s glued to Ryou!” he whispered in frustration. And it was true, Ryou would not let go of either Sara or Bakura, the loss being too recent, and she was unable to cope with it on her own at the moment. She had lost both mother and sister on a car accident, neglected by an absent father, and now lost her baby. Atem saw this, but also realized that Jou’s need to talk to Sara was increasing by the second, and he might act rashly and make a mess if something didn’t happen soon. Yugi saw his dilemma, and offered a solution that Jou despised, but would solve his most pressing concern:  
“Talk to her now, while all of us are here, that way, if things don’t go the way you want, Bakura will make sure to kick you out before you say anything too hebetudinous”.  
“Too what?” asked Jou, dumbfounded.  
“Stupid” translated Atem, “she refuses to use that word with our future children, so she’s looking for synonyms. It’s starting to get annoying when I can’t tell her that she’s being silly!” at this, Yugi raised her eyebrows, and Atem got out his phone and started looking for an appropriate substitute while Jou snickered.  
“Atem knows I’m right, he just doesn’t want to admit that his vocabulary leaves much to be desired”  
“If you think that about Atem’s, I beg you, never tell me what you think of Bakura’s!” chirped Ryou. Bakura was known for his colorful vocabulary, but he had decreased his swearing around Ryou because he knew she didn’t like it, but would swear up a storm when he was with his military buddies, to get it all out of his system.  
“So what do you need to talk about with Bakura around to kick you out if necessary?” asked Ryou, curious.  
“Mokuba, let’s go get dinner for everyone” said Malik, knowing that he Mokuba wouldn’t want to hear any part of that story again.  
“I’ll take him in the limousine Malik, Sara will most likely need you” whispered Isono, and ushered the young, grateful boy, outside.  
“Well, I need to tell Sara something that her dad just shared with us and… and I’m afraid I might want to kill the guy if Bakura isn’t around”.  
“You want to kill Isono? Why?”  
“No, Gozaburo”  
“But he is dead” said Sara, puzzled.  
“Oh, I’ll bring him back to life and kill him about, I don’t know, 5 billion times sound good to you Malik?” it was the only way he knew how to let Sara know that Malik also knew, so she’d have an ally during the very distressing conversation that would occur.  
“To start with sounds good, it’d give us time to come up with a good torture, don’t you think?” Jou nodded, acknowledging the fact that Malik had caught on and was willing to help.  
“But until we figure out how to obliterate an already dead guy, you need to know something. Sara, my friends call me Jou, and you are my friend” everyone froze for a second when Sara whimpered at the statement, and started to cry. Jou didn’t need to say anything else, she figured that he was forgiving her for whatever wrongs she had done in the past, and still wanted to be her friend. “You didn’t do anything wrong Sara, Gozaburo did”. At that, she wailed and fainted, years of pent up emotion catching up with her and overwhelming her. Malik went to catch her, but Jou was faster and closer. Everyone else was trying to process what was going on, but Malik shook his head, asking silently to wait until Sara could explain what she thought was needed, giving her the choice to share or not her harrowing experience.  
A few minutes later, Sara opened her eyes and asked “what’s going on?”  
Jou wasn’t sure how to answer her, but Malik had seen it happen before, and he knew what to do. “What’s the last thing you remember?”  
“I got a letter from you telling me how excited you were because your sister was getting married”. That had happened over 3 years before.  
“All right, what was the dream you had?”  
Sara blushed, and shook her head. Malik encouraged her to tell him, but she kept refusing, so he whispered something in her ear, making her previous blush look pale compared to her actual one. Malik smiled, and whispered something else, and for some reason, Jou didn’t like the idea of Sara blushing at whatever it was that Malik was saying to her. He got up and was ready to leave in a huff, when a soft voice stopped him “I dreamed that I was finally forgiven for killing my baby”.  
“Sara, try a little bit more dear, what would you like for your dream to be?”  
“To not be guilty, for it to had been an accident…” she whispered softly, talking to her shoes instead of looking at Malik or anyone else in the room.  
“What if I told you that Jou can make your dream come true?” Malik smirked, and that didn’t sit well with anyone in the room, he was planning something, and when Malik planned something, usually somebody ended in trouble. “Just that one, not the…” Sara covered his mouth, her blush putting stop lights to shame, and Bakura laughed, guessing what Malik was talking about, so he whispered it into Ryou’s ear, trying to cheer her up, and she gifted him with her beautiful laugh.  
“Great, just great, I can beat all standing comedians since I am a riot even while sitting down”. Jou smiled, and Yugi was staring at Atem, trying to figure out what they were all talking about. To her, it had never been a secret that Sara liked Jou, very, very much, but it seemed like Jou and everyone else had been oblivious to it.  
“Not everybody is as observant as you my dear” Atem kissed her nose, and she giggled.  
“What did we miss?” Mokuba and Isono came into the room, the latter being too nervous to leave Sara alone for long after the unveiling of the secret that she had refused to acknowledge for so long.  
“We were trying to convince Sara that she can share her deepest, darkest secrets with us, and we’ll still like her” Jou said jokingly, not knowing the effect his words would have on Sara. “And don’t forget, you need to call me Jou”, and winked at her. At that moment, she almost fainted again, this time for very different reasons, which was a good thing.  
“Does it mean you’re going to share the name of your secret crush with us?” asked Mokuba, knowing very well who she liked, but liking the idea of being able to tease his sister in front of her friends.  
“It’s no secret I love Malik!” she deadpanned. No matter what Jou said, if he knew the whole story, he’d despise her, and he was too loyal to put his friendship with her above the bond he shared with Honda, and she wasn’t ready for the more than likely heartbreak that awaited her if he ever found out that him and her baby shared the same name.  
“But Sara that isn’t…” started Mokuba, but Isono stopped. He had figured that she held deep feelings for someone in the gang, and he had finally figured who it was just at that moment, and understood her need for secrecy. Honda and Jou were closer than most friends, were almost brothers, and acknowledging any wrongdoing on Honda’s part against Sara was something that nobody was prepared for, and it would take a long time to recuperate from.  
“Come give me some love, sister” Malik teased, well aware that that was all that would ever be between them. She had a crush on Miho himself, and Sara had supported him when Honda had started dating her, now it was his turn to support his sister in her time of need for secrecy. Ryou let go of Sara’s hand and she went willingly into Malik’s arms, repeating “thank you” over, and over again.  
Now, Jou was a hot head, a goof ball, and his head to mouth filter was close to non-existent, but seeing Sara in Malik’s arms made him madder than a fight with Kaiba ever had, but wasn’t sure why. Atem saw the anger and jealousy reflected in his friend’s eyes, and nudging Yugi, asked her silently what they should do. Yugi thought about it for a minute, but couldn’t come up with an answer, so Bakura suggested they all eat the delicious dinner that Mokuba and Isono had brought, hoping that Black-Hole-Jou would be distracted enough, and it worked. They shared the tasty lunch that had been brought to them, and for once, it was even enough for Jou, but maybe it was because he was too busy shooting daggers at Malik, who was cuddling Sara like there was no tomorrow. Isono was extremely grateful for the attention his ‘daughter’ was receiving, but noticed the chill atmosphere in the room whenever Jou spoke to anyone, so he decided to clear the air.  
“Sara, now that you’re with your friends, and your brothers, would you mind hearing the truth? You are safe. No va a pasarte nada, todos los que estamos aqui te queremos y apoyamos”.  
“You speak Spanish?” Jou asked, baffled.  
“She is originally from Spain, and her father was Italian, I thought you guys knew that” Isono said.  
“No lo sabia” Sara’s face lit up.  
“Hablas espanol? No tenia ni idea!”  
“Hey guys, I am glad all of you have found your common ground, but not all of us have any idea what you’re talking about” cut in Atem, who had no clue what they were saying, but had seen a light of joy in Sara’s eyes when she found out Jou spoke her native tongue.  
“Sorry, I get carried away whenever I hear Spanish”.  
“Yup, and she talks so fast, not even I can understand what she is saying”.  
“It can’t be that bad” said Jou.  
“I hope your Spanish is as good as hers, because now that she knows, if she ever gets mad at you, you’ll get an earful and a half at the speed of light!” Isono laughed, he had been on the receiving end of one of Sara’s speeches, and it was hard to follow.  
“Anyway, what did you want to tell me dad?” Sara finished the conversation, not wanting to dwell on her Spanish hot temper any longer.  
“Sara, I talked to your brothers and Jou about this, but not everyone knows, are you okay with them knowing?” she nodded, so he went on, explaining what he had told the other boys earlier that day. Even though they had already heard it, the anger still arose in Malik’s and Jou’s hearts, Mokuba had left to get a chocolate bar that he knew his sister would need, and Yugi went with him, feeling that it would be too much for her to bear, and Atem could give her the condensed, gory free version if needed. Bakura understood why Jou had wanted him there, that way they could plot a way to make Gozaburo pay. Ryou felt some of her sorrow for herself ease a little to be replaced with sorrow for her friend. Sara was still, didn’t move a muscle, didn’t cry, was barely breathing, and Malik felt her go colder, and colder as Isono went on. When he finished, she shed just one tear, and looked down for a second. Then she thanked her father and left the room, without looking at anyone. Jou and Malik wanted to follow her, but Bakura stopped them. He knew that her grief was too fresh to be shared, she needed time to deal with it on her own, and when she was ready, she’d come to them. Jou felt a strange, deep, excruciating pain, that didn’t feel like his own. He shook his head, trying to clear it, but the pain persisted, slightly lessened, but still there. He was getting so anxious, he got up and went to look for Sara, and this time, nobody dared to stop him after looking at his face.  
“I hope he can help Sara; do you think he’s figured it out?”  
“Figured what out?” asked Mokuba, with a handful of chocolate for his missing sister.  
“What the baby’s name is, of course” Yugi smiled.  
“I’m not sure, but there’s a connection between them that I haven’t seen before” Ishizu said from the door.  
“Sis, you are as creepy as ever, seriously, showing up and finishing people’s sentences out of the blue”.  
“I came to see how Ryou is doing, that’s all, and caught the end of the conversation. Jou and Sara have a very rare connection, rarer than yours with her, Malik, and I think that if you can be good friends with Jou, nothing will be able to stop the three of you”.  
“What are you talking about?” Mokuba asked, curious to know what connection Ishizu was talking about that involved Sara but not him.  
“Malik and Sara are…”  
“Not yet Ishizu, not yet” Odion interrupted her. Sara and Jou needed to be there to make sure that when Jou heard of the connection between them, jealousy wouldn’t cloud his mind, and it would take some time to reach that point.  
“He’s right sis, two of the interested parties aren’t here, and they need to know”.  
“Don’t you mean three of the interested parties?” quipped Yugi, knowing that Malik liked Miho but hadn’t said anything since she was supposedly dating Honda. In all reality, Honda had been cheating on Miho with Anzu for weeks, and Yugi was trying to make Malik make a move to help Miho break free, but so far, it hadn’t worked.

In the meantime, with Jou and Sara,  
“Sara, Sara, Sara” Jou gently shook her, but she didn’t respond. He had found her curled up in a ball, in a little garden that was outside of the hospital. He sat down by her and put his arm around her. She stiffened slightly, but when he looked at her without hatred in his eyes, she couldn’t hold it in any longer and started bawling. He held her tighter, whispering soothing words, mumbling nonsense when he didn’t know what else to say, and all she could do was cry, years of tears came pouring out, and Jou held her to him like she was someone precious and delicate. Somehow, neither knew how or why, they started kissing, and Sara never wanted it to stop. Jou’s kiss might not be experienced, but was sweet, and soothing, a balm for her soul. Sara’s kisses started clumsy, unsure, but full of raw pain and need, so Jou did his best to respond and soothe, but when he touched the back of her neck, she froze and looked at him with terror. Jou had never experienced one of her flashbacks, so it surprised him to no end, but something deep inside told him to kiss her again, to talk to her, to let her taste him, hear him, smell him, and just him, and it worked. Sara came back, slowly, and apologized profusely to Jou, but he just pecked her lips and said, “no need to apologize, I just hope, I just wanted, I just needed to comfort you somehow, and, and, I hope I didn’t mess up our friendship”. Sara would have preferred him yelling at her, ranting and raving about stealing a kiss or anything, anything but that kindness and reminder that all they were, and most likely, all they’d ever be, would be friends.  
“Thank you Jou, do you mind if we go inside? I’m cold”. It was a balmy 80 degrees outside, and she was cold, he didn’t get it, but he was sure Malik or Isono would know what to do, so he helped her up, and arm in arm, walked towards their friends.

Back in the room again, Sara walked towards Malik and cuddled in his arms, shivering. He asked Jou, very calmly “where did you touch her?”  
Jou was red as a tomato and stuttered “wh-wh-what do you mean?”  
“I mean, where did you touch her, simple as that” he reiterated.  
“My neck” Sara whispered, wishing to avoid an embarrassing situation that would only bring her sorrow.  
“Oh, Sara… what number?”  
“I’m not sure, 3 maybe?”  
“All right, here you go” and Malik gave her some ear buds, and pushed something on the screen of what looked like an iPod, then held her tight, and asked Mokuba to get some blankets from a nurse.  
Bakura and Ryou recognized the signs of PTSD, Bakura having suffered some episodes himself, so they wisely lead a conversation that would leave Malik and Sara out without it being too obvious. Isono realized their efforts, and joined in, grateful for the wonderful friends his children had found, and Jou simply stared into space, oblivious to the conversation around him, too lost in his thoughts of unknown pain, a foreign fear, and a mind blowing kiss.  
Ryou was released that same day, and Sara spent the night at her house, so both her and Bakura would have time to grieve, and Sara herself wouldn’t have to face the mansion so soon after finding out what had happened to her precious treasure.  
It was only two days until the proposed departure, and Jou hadn’t heard a word from either Honda or Anzu, and wasn’t sure if he was ecstatic or plain happy. It was so odd, a friendship, a brotherhood of years, destroyed in such a short period of time… When had Honda become such a cruel person? Was he mad at Sara for the things Kaiba had done or for something else? It seemed too much hatred to be easily solved, and he had thought that their trip together might shed some light on the matter, but now he wasn’t sure even if it was happening any more or not, since kicking Honda out of the hospital hadn’t been the friendliest of things Jou had ever done. He was walking towards the Game Shop to go shopping with Atem and Bakura, while Yugi and Sara hang out with Ryou and planned all the little details that women like to plan for their dream wedding. On his way there he saw Honda kissing someone, whom he assumed was Miho, but he was wrong, so very wrong. Honda was cheating on Miho with Anzu, and that explained the reason why Honda had invited Anzu to the trip and not Miho. If they weren’t together anymore, why not tell the gang? Did Miho know? He was so mad, he got to the Game Shop and almost went past the door, except for the fact that Atem came out and grabbed him, thinking that he was trying to run away from their planned outing.  
“You’re coming with me to pick the suit, you’re the best man after all, and the groom has to approve your outfit” said Atem, only half teasing.  
“Sorry man, I just saw Honda and… wasn’t he dating Miho? When did they break up?” asked Jou while following Atem inside.  
“They should have broken up long ago, but Honda likes the adrenalin rush he gets from two timing Miho apparently” said Yugi, madder than a hornet. “I love Anzu, and I really like Miho, but what Honda and Anzu are doing, man, that’s just, just, just, I need a dictionary”.  
Jou blinked, and Atem laughed “I told you, she’s obsessed about having a clean vocabulary, so now she needs to come up with strong enough words. Man, I love that woman Jou. We aren’t even married yet, and she’s trying to be the best wife and mother she can…” Atem got that dreamy look typical of him whenever he talked about his beloved fiancée, and for first time ever, Jou wished he could have someone that would put such a dreamy look on his face, someone who would want to be the best wife and mother ever, someone who would love him and kiss him like Sara had…  
“Aaaaaaah…” he screamed, afraid at his own thoughts, and startled Atem out of his dreamlike state. Since both men were embarrassed about their behavior, they did what men usually do, ignored it and moved on.  
“We should get going soon, Yugi wanted to get flowers for Ryou before they met at the house”, but before he could reply, they both heard a car stop nearby and the shop bell tinkle softly.  
“Hi guys, I came to pick up Yugi so we could go together to Ryou’s. I stopped by the nursery and got… why are you looking at me that way Mr. Jounouchi? Hello? Anybody in there?” she waved her hand in front of Jou’s face, but he only blinked and said the most intelligent thing he could come up with, a very intelligent “huh?”. Yugi came down stairs and saw the scene, and laughed. Jou was staring at Sara, Sara was staring at Jou, both confused and unsure, and Atem had a knowing grin on his face.  
“Hi Sara, I thought you spent the night at Ryou’s”.  
“I did, but I went home to change and then went to the nursery to get Ryou a plant, you know how I hate cut flowers, so I thought we could sign a card together and…”  
“You hate cut flowers?” interrupted Jou, fascinated by that tidbit of information he hadn’t known before.  
Sara nodded, not trying to understand what was going on through his head at the moment “cut flowers are dead, and sad. Their beauty fades so much faster, all out of selfishness, because people don’t want to commit to care for… Never mind, I just don’t like dead things. Do you still have those cute cards that we saw the other day? Remember Ryou’s face when she saw the kitten one?” she asked Yugi, not willing to expose one of her embarrassing quirks to Jou, no matter how silly he was acting at the moment.  
“She hates cut flowers, but likes plants? “  
“I thought you knew… that’s why those gifts were so distressing to her, dead flowers, a funeral wreath…”  
“That makes me sicker than ever!” Jou hissed “Honda has a lot of explaining to do. Maybe I shouldn’t go on that trip, I don’t think he’ll come back alive”.  
“I think you should go more than ever, you guys need time to clear the air, and Honda deserves a chance to explain himself, even if you’re just doing it for the friendship you’ve had, you both need closure and a chance to talk”.  
“Well, he isn’t bringing Anzu”.  
“But it’s her cabin, and her aunt is letting you guys go because she’ll be there” Atem reminded him.  
“Does Miho know…”  
“She does, but Honda hasn’t talked to her for about three weeks, so she hasn’t been able to make a clean break. No matter how he treated her, she wasn’t going to end it with a text message” responded Sara, handing Jou a card for him to sign.  
“But I didn’t pay for anything!” he complained.  
“Just sign Mr. Jounouchi, Ryou needs to know her friends care, not who paid for what”.  
“Why don’t you call me Jou? I thought we were friends”.  
“I guess it’s habit, the threats got to me and… never mind, just sign please”.  
“Threats?” Jou mouthed, flabbergasted, but Atem didn’t seem to know, and Yugi promised herself she would find out today what she had meant by that.  
“Are you guys ready? Isono wanted to take you shopping because he doesn’t trust you with a suit, so we can go all together to get Bakura for you, and when you’re done, we can take you back home”.  
“Sounds great, Isono always looks good with those suits he wears” Atem seemed more excited about the prospect than before, thinking that having help from someone with good taste would speed up the process. He couldn’t have been more wrong.

While the boys were being tortured by a very conscientious Isono…  
“Thank you for the plant and the card Sara” said Ryou, giving her a hug.  
“Yugi and the boys contributed too!” she complained, not wanting to get all the credit.  
“I know, but only you have a deep aversion for cut flowers, anybody else would have gotten me a simple bouquet”  
“Busted…” Sara smiled wryly, and all the girls laughed. It felt good to be with friends. While they were still laughing, the doorbell rang, and in came Miho, red eyed but smiling.  
“Oh Sara…” she cried, and ran into her arms. They all knew Miho had liked Honda for a long time, and when he had asked her out, she was over the moon, but soon it all came crashing down when just after a week of going out, he started being unusually mean and cruel. It caught Miho by surprise, and she thought it might be the stress of the tests, the end of school, worries about work, his future, but it wasn’t that. Sara saw it, and as kindly as she could, guided Miho to were Honda was kissing Anzu passionately. Sara preferred Miho to hate her than hate herself thinking that she was doing something wrong, and even though it had been hard for Miho, she had seen the wisdom of the action. Words would have meant little, Miho didn’t know Sara, but she knew the animosity between her and Honda. Seeing is believing, and finally, after over 3 weeks of trying to break up, Miho had found Honda along with Anzu, and broke up with him, then ran to Ryou’s to start rebuilding her broken illusions.  
“I’m so sorry Miho, I wish…” Sara began.  
“No, I am here to cheer up Ryou and talk wedding plans with Yugi, so let’s get moving. I brought cookies!” and with an unsure smile, she went deeper into the house, trying to be as happy as she could with her true friends.  
After hours of laughter, cookies, gossip, more laughter and cookies, and wedding planning, the boys came back, exhausted but ecstatic. Atem had found the perfect suit and was describing it to all the girls, but Jou just wanted to go home and rest his weary feet. Who knew that shopping with a body guard could be so grueling? But he had to admit that the suits look incredible, and after the few minor alterations for his own suit (and some major ones for Atem’s, since he was quite short), they’d look great. Jou was thankful for Isono’s help, and the food he had provided, knowing how tiring that shopping trip would be, and how important was for the girls to have as much time as they could together, so he made sure they would stay out for several hours, and after seeing Ryou’s happy face, Bakura saw the wisdom of the older man’s actions, and shook his hand heartily.  
“Let’s go home, please!” Jou whined.  
“You’re such a baby” teased Bakura.  
“Easy for you to say! You only tried 2 suits, and you’re home already! I had to try a million suits and still have to get home after dropping Atem and Yugi!”  
“Baby” reiterated Bakura, hugging a much happier and calmer Ryou. “Thank you girls” he whispered, glad to see his wife feeling so much better after her ‘girl time’.  
“Well, I’m glad Isono was able to help you guys to not be a fashion disaster. Miho, do you need a ride home?” asked Sara, getting ready to leave.  
“My mom texted me a little bit ago saying she’d pick me up, thank you Sara, for everything” they hugged, and Jou hoped that Miho could move forward without Honda, he fervently hoped so.  
After dropping the engaged couple at the Game Shop, the car was quiet, too quiet for Jou’s taste, so he broke the silence by bluntly asking about Miho.  
“Did Miho finally break up with Honda?” Sara just nodded, not trusting her voice for some reason. “Did you have fun?” he asked, trying to keep a semblance of conversation, and failing miserably, since all that Sara did was nod again. “Are you mad at me?” shake of a head “lost your voice?” she laughed and shook her head again “cat got your tongue” she just stuck it out to prove him she still had a tongue, and Jou laughed. “What did you mean by threats? Did Honda threaten you or Mokuba in any way?” he finally asked.  
“Mr. Jounouchi, I…”  
“Enough with the mister” he bellowed. It hurt so much, he didn’t know why, but it hurt him whenever she called him Mr. Jounouchi. All of the sudden, Jou gasped, he felt a fear, a deep seated fear, and an incredible sadness that once again, didn’t seem to belong to him. He looked at Sara and saw a blank expression on her face, but hidden deep inside her eyes he could see fear and sadness.  
“I am sorry, I am trying to change it, but…”  
“Mr. Jou, we’ve arrived”  
“Even the bodyguard can call me Jou” he grumbled, unable to try and hurt Sara a little, just like she was hurting him. He heard a sharp intake of breath but didn’t turn to check, he was mad, tired, hurt, and didn’t want to deal with other people at the moment. All he wanted was his comfortable bed, a good night’s rest and forget everything about those blue eyes that had looked so sad just a few moments ago.

It was the day of Jou’s trip with Honda and Anzu, and as much as he didn’t want to go, he knew he needed time to talk things over with his friend, and give him time to explain why he had done all those mean and cruel things. The trip was pretty boring, Honda didn’t like to talk while driving, Anzu was either asleep or listening to music, and when it was Jou’s turn to drive, Honda and Anzu would have a cozy tete-a-tete that made him feel left out and lonely. After finally arriving, they were all too tired to do much more than get ready for bed and go to sleep. The next few days were filled with activities planned by Honda and Anzu, leaving little time to have a serious conversation, but Jou wasn’t too worried. He began to think that maybe he had been exaggerating, maybe Honda hadn’t sent those gifts and letters, maybe Miho had misunderstood Honda’s intentions and he had never cheated on her, maybe, maybe, there were so many maybes Jou couldn’t think, didn’t want to think, so he threw himself fully into the fun, and forgot all about letters, friends, Miho, and Sara.  
It seemed to be going well until the fifth night of their stay, when Jou had an extremely disturbing dream, a dream that brought all the forgotten worries and doubts to the forefront of his thoughts. In his dream, Sara was holding a beautiful baby boy, brown eyes, blond hair, and a toothless half smile. She was cooing, and singing softly, sometimes whispering “my beautiful Katsuya, I love you”. Then a black cloud came, covering Sara and her baby. The next thing Jou saw, was Sara on her knees, crying, covered in blood, and begging for someone to come back. At first, he didn’t understand what she was saying, but then he heard her; “Katsuya come back, I am sorry” over and over. Jou assumed she was talking about her baby, but for some reason that didn’t seem to fit. He woke up with a start, hearing Sara’s voice begging Katsuya to come back, and he had a feeling it was him she was asking for forgiveness, but forgive her for what? He couldn’t go back to sleep, so he went for a walk around the woods, they were beautiful and peaceful, far enough away from civilization to be quiet, but accessible enough to make sure things didn’t get too boring. During his walk he mulled over the dream, and tried to figure out what it meant, but gave up. His worries over the letters and Miho returned full force though, so he decided to confront Honda as soon as he was awake. He made breakfast for all three of them, trying to kill time, and also making it impossible for anyone to offer to go to eat out while they went about their activities for today. Jou’s plan seemed to work quite well at the beginning. Anzu and Honda were thankful for the meal, and realized that they would have some time to prepare and relax before leaving, so while Anzu was showering, Jou pounced. He asked Honda all the questions that had been running in his head for so long, and at first, his friend was surprised, then was angry, but finally resigned himself to answer him, while trying to fully justify himself. Miho didn’t have time to hang out, didn’t like the gang, didn’t satisfy his physical or emotional needs, was distant and cold, etc. Sara was a liar, she was as much Seto Kaiba as Seto himself, everything that Kaiba did, Sara would have done, and probably did, the only thing Gozaburo did was to change her appearance, but the inside was the same, and he went on and on trying to justify his cruel actions. He admitted to having written the letters, but not sending the gifts, and Jou believed him, it took a deeper knowledge of Sara than Honda had, and he suspected Anzu’s hand in those so called presents. Honda thought that Sara was bad news through and through, had tried to separate Jou and Honda by lying to Jou, and now that Jou knew the whole truth, he hoped that things would go back to the way they were before.  
“I’m sorry man, I didn’t know all of that, thanks for sharing with me” Jou said as convincingly as he could. He remembered what Bakura had said about Sara: “she is so convinced that those lies are the truth, that she isn’t lying, it is the truth to her”, and realized that Honda had a similar problem. He decided to pack his stuff and put it in the car while Anzu was getting ready and Honda showered. He was going to call Mokuba as soon as they got to town for the day, and ask him for a way back home, this trip was over. He had gotten the answers he had been looking for, and didn’t look forward to another 3 days of having to fake a good and happy friendship. It was quite easy, now that Honda had admitted the truth to Jou, him and Anzu were pretty much glued to each other, and left Jou to his own devices. During one of these breaks, Jou tried calling Mokuba, the mansion, and even Isono, but got no answer. It worried him, so he tried Ryou, the Game Shop, even Kaiba Corp, but got nowhere. Finally, he thought about calling Malik and asking him what was going on, and then he almost wished he hadn’t, almost.  
“Malik speaking”  
“Malik, it’s Jou” he began.  
“Jou, you have no idea how happy I am to hear your voice! When are you coming back? Are you coming back? Did you send that letter to Sara or was that the prankster from before? Did you really mean it or…?”  
“Wait a second Malik, what letter? I haven’t sent anything! I have tried calling everyone but nobody answered, not even the Game Shop! What’s going on?” he was frantic.  
“Sara is in a coma, and the doctors don’t think she’s going to live much longer. There is something, oh Jou, I’m so sorry…” and he started crying. Malik, crying? He was tough, he never cried, that was for girls, and Sara in a coma? No, she was too happy to be in a coma, she loved life too much to miss out on anything. Something was wrong, and Jou needed to know what, right now. Another voice came on the phone, but he didn’t recognize it at first.  
“Jou, is that you?”  
“This is Jou”, he answered, a little unsure. Who’d get Malik’s phone and ask Jou by name? This was getting weirder and weirder by the minute.  
“Thank goodness! This is Isono, we are at the Kaiba Corp. Medical Center, Sara is in a coma, and she might not make it. She received a letter that triggered…” Jou cut him off.  
“What letter? How can a letter trigger anything?” he was almost yelling.  
“It was Gozaburo’s safeguard to make sure Sara obeyed at all times, even when he wasn’t around. There were specific sentences that would trigger a punishment, the severity of which depended on the behavior he was correcting. Somehow, someone found one of those sentences that put Sara in a coma. It was brutal, I am glad you weren’t there to witness it, but she isn’t likely to make it past tonight and, well, we thought you might want to…” Isono couldn’t finish the sentence.  
“Okay, why are you pranking me like this? It is impossible for a sentence to trigger anything, Sara is too tough and too happy to be in a coma. If you want me to come back because you guys can’t live without me, just tell me outright, but don’t make up such…”  
“Do you think I would joke about my daughter’s life?” he didn’t yell, but his tone was so cold, it almost froze Jou’s ear. “Turn on the GPS on your phone, a helicopter is coming to get you to the nearest airport, don’t worry about your clothes, I’m sure your friends…”  
Now it was Jou’s turn to cut him off, seemed like a game of some sort “I’m packed and ready to go as soon as your helicopter gets here, can I talk to Sara, please?”  
“Jou, she’s in a coma, she can’t… Alright, I understand, give me a second. You can talk now” Jou heard, farther than before, so he started talking about the trip, the things they had done, the things he’d like to do with her, until he heard Isono’s voice again. “Is the helicopter there yet? You need to keep talking to her as much as you can, please Jou, her heartbeat is getting stronger!”  
Before Jou could answer, a helicopter appeared on the sky a few feet away from Jou, and he ran to it, climbing inside, forgetting his bag, his friends, and everything, just replaying Isono’s words over and over while his phone’s battery died “her heartbeat is getting stronger”.  
Once at the airport Jou was ushered into a jet and given a set of headphones so he could communicate with Isono once again. Sara’s heart had stopped for almost 5 minutes after they had lost the connection with Jou, and they were hoping that hearing his voice again might help her like it did before. So Jou talked, and talked, and talked, even when he heard crying on the background, he kept talking during the whole 2-hour flight. He rested his voice and prepared for the worst during the 15-minute drive to the hospital where Sara was, and he didn’t have the courage to talk, so he asked Isono to play a song for Sara until he got there, a song that somehow he knew she loved, like he knew when she was hurt, or afraid, or sad, he knew this song by heart, because it was the song Sara wanted to hear from Jou. When he got to the hospital security refused to let him in without identification, so they had to call Isono to the reception area, but he wasn’t in the room. Just before they kicked Jou out, Isono showed up, tears running down his face, and hugging Jou so tight he could barely breath. Without a word or sound, Isono guided the bewildered Jou to where he assumed Sara’s body laid, having gotten there too late to even say goodbye, but when the door opened, he heard the most beautiful sound that he could have imagined, a soft and sweet, “Katsuya?”, so he started to sing the song that Sara needed to hear, the song of their hearts.  
He had no clue how they managed to be alone in such a short amount of time. It seemed like the whole gang had been there, besides Isono, Mokuba, Malik and his family and at least 3 nurses and 2 doctors, but as soon as Jou began to sing, everyone faded away, and only Sara and Jou existed.  
“Te he echado mucho de menos” Sara said softly.  
“Yo aun mas, tuve la pesadilla mas horrible del mundo ayer por la noche, y cuando llame a Malik me di cuenta de que era la realidad! Don’t you ever do this to me again, do you hear me? I thought, I thought I had lost you before I had you…” and Jou cried, cried in relief, in fear, in frustration, and Sara held him close, softly kissing his tears away, promising to never do anything like that again. “I meant it, every word, I hope you know that” he said blushing, but unwilling to get too far from the comfort of Sara’s arms, and her strong and steady heartbeat.  
“The song?” he nodded “how did you know?” he shrugged, and then started to look around for something, “what are you looking for?” she asked, bemused,  
“I’ll be right back” and he got up, coming back a few moments later with a clipboard, paper and a pen. He was drawing something, concentrating greatly, and when he showed Sara his drawing, she laughed, cried and said the words that he had wanted to hear for so long, without even realizing it.  
“Te quiero, Katsuya” and she kissed him, and he kissed her back, and there were one, for a magic moment, all forgotten, ignoring the clattering of the clipboard and the paper showing two stick figures, one dreaming of another telling them “I love you”, just like the song of their hearts.

IN THE MEANTIME  
“Are you sure she will be fine doctor?” asked a concerned Isono. When her heart had stopped for five whole minutes, he thought his would have stopped soon right along with hers, and even though it had started beating again, and was strong and steady, he still worried.  
“If that boy keeps kissing her like that, I am sure she will be fine, but I am not so sure about you” the doctor teased, watching the video of the two new lovers kissing with such love that it made the doctor feel young again, so he grabbed his wife (who happened to be the other doctor present in the room) and started kissing her like there was no tomorrow. Yugi laughed, until Atem decided to follow “doctor’s orders”, and they were followed by all the other couples present, leaving Malik feeling a little left out, but hopeful, especially when he caught Miho’s discreet glances towards him, and a slight blush on her face.

2 MONTHS LATER…  
Yugi and Atem were still unsure about their wedding date, they wanted it close to the holidays because Christmas “is the best time of life” according to Yugi, but “a new life deserves a new beginning” according to Atem, so they were going back and forth, weighing pros and cons, and driving everyone around them crazy with their indecision. They had gotten together once again, mainly because both parties wanted the support and opinion of their friends, and any excuse was a good excuse to have fun together, even if things between Honda, Anzu and the rest of the gang were still bad, Miho, Sara and Malik more than made up for the loss of two of their friends.  
“A Christmas wedding would be so memorable…” Yugi was saying, dreamy eyed.  
“But everyone is going to be already fed up from the festivities, adding one more is just plain mean” Bakura countered, mainly because he hated any kind of gathering that involved more than 6 people.  
“Yes, but we are also sure that our families will be here, if we do it at another time…” started Atem, but Sara cut him off.  
“What about after New Year? Let me explain: once you have children, you are probably going to want to have time with them, celebrating an anniversary during Christmas might not work well then, with all the stress of presents, parties, friends, family, etc. Thanksgiving is too close to the Christmas’ shopping spree you’ll probably go for the first few years, but after New Year, all the major holidays will be over, kids will be busy with their toys and not too full of sugar, friends and family most likely won’t have other commitments so they’ll be willing to babysit, and...”  
“Sara, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, YOU ARE A GENIUS!” Yugi hugged her, displacing Jou and causing him to fall off the couch, making him growl, to which Bakura said “once a Mutt, always a Mutt”, but Sara cut them off before they could start arguing any more.  
“What a compliment Bakura! Dogs are loyal, friendly, love unconditionally, are forgiving, smart, and have good instincts. I must say, I am honored to be dating a person with those qualities, I only hope I am worthy of his affection” and with a smile, she listened to Yugi’s ideas for the bridesmaids’ dresses.  
Jou got up, beaming, and went to Sara’s other side, making sure she could see him at all times, and sat on the arm of the couch, gently caressing her shoulder, while the girls talked about the dresses and color themes. Atem decided it was time for a break, and got up from his chair to go to the kitchen, but he made a fatal mistake, he touched Sara’s shoulder from behind to ask her something, and he went flying. Fortunately for everyone, he fell on a beanbag, so he didn’t get badly hurt, unfortunately for Bakura, he was sitting next to the beanbag, and Atem’s foot hit him on the face, giving him a pretty impressive black eye.  
“This is…” he wanted to swear, but he knew Ryou and Yugi would be upset “this is…”  
“Preposterous?” Yugi supplied.  
“Outrageous?” offered Ryou.  
“Humiliating” whispered Sara, more about herself than Bakura’s situation.  
“Yes, humiliating! I’ve been on dozens of dangerous missions to places nobody here even knows that they exist, and got away scratch free. And I end up with a black eye in a living room, with my friends????? I’ll never hear the end of it!!” he was furious, and Sara took it personally. It was her fault, after all.  
“I am so sorry Bakura, so sorry…” only Jou noticed the blood seeping her sleeve, and that triggered a memory.  
“Malik, call Isono, Bakura, first aid kit right now, Atem, call Mokuba, Miho, keep Ryou and Yugi busy looking at the colors for the wedding” and with that, took Sara gently to a bedroom, followed shortly by Bakura and Malik.  
The girls were unsure about what was going on, but they saw Jou apparently having it all under control, so they got busy with what they could do, and kept out of the way. Malik was done with his phone call shortly, and gestured to the girls to wait for their questions until Isono got there. Atem handed Malik the phone to have him explain the situation to Mokuba better than he could, and sat down by Yugi, lending her whatever little support and insight he could. Bakura came out of the room, looking somber and slightly mad, which looked worse due to his very swollen eye. Ryou made him sit on her chair, and proceeded to sit on his lap, while talking with the other girls about their ideas. They kept repeating themselves, but nobody could focus, worried about their friend in the other room. Isono’s and Mokuba’s arrival seemed to help diffuse the tension slightly, but their curiosity didn’t diminish.  
A WHILE LATER…  
“I’m very sorry for ruining today Yugi, I’m sorry I hurt you guys” Sara said looking at Atem and Bakura, flinching slightly when she saw the huge bruise of her friend’s face.  
“Are you alright?” asked Isono gently, “what happened?”  
“Atem touched her shoulder from the back, and she, well, she showed her black belt techniques very well, I must say”.  
“Wait, you’re a black belt?” Bakura asked, Sara nodded “in the Korean Martial Arts you told me?” she nodded again.  
“She’s a 2nd degree black belt, working on her 3rd degree!” Jou announced proudly.  
“Well, that makes it a little better. Now I can tell I went against a very strong black belt, right? That should help with the guys. Man, to think that I can get away without a scratch from a crazy maniac, and get a black eye because of a flying midget”.  
“You have to admit, it was a pretty impressive throw” quipped Miho, making the group laugh, and relieving some of the tension.  
“Sara, dear, I think it would help if your friends knew some of the boundaries that you need, so this doesn’t happen again” said Isono, gently.  
“Don’t worry Atem, I’ve flown a few times myself, and so has Isono here, until we figured out what things to avoid”.  
“I am sorry guys, I should have said something sooner, but today was supposed to be planning for the wedding…”  
“That was a lame excuse, dear, even I could come up with better ones’ years ago!” teased Jou.  
“Well, it’s all up to Yugi and Atem, don’t you think?” Sara said, drawing closer to Jou so he could hold her and lend her the support she so needed.  
“I personally think that a flying groom would be an excellent part of the entertainment, don’t you think?” Bakura joked.  
“As long as he stays in one piece for the honeymoon…” Sara murmured, making Malik and Jou, the only ones who heard her, laugh.  
“Sara, we love you, you’re a great friend, but I would like to know how to help you and make sure there aren’t any more flying incidents”.  
“I’ll go with mom to get some dinner while you guys talk” Mokuba said, and went back to the limo to ask Greta to go get food for everyone, and to get away from the very emotional conversation he had had once before, and he couldn’t go through again.  
Sara was nervously playing with her clothes, drawing as close to Jou as she could, practically seating on his lap, and trying to make herself as small as she could. Isono saw how uncomfortable she was, and would have loved to help her in any way, but knew she needed to get it out herself, and realize that those were her friends, and would be her friends no matter what she said. Hesitantly, softly, Sara started recounting some of the abuse Gozaburo had put her through, her reactions to certain touches, her need to feel safe, and the brutal flashbacks she suffered with certain touches (Jou nodded at this, it had taken him a while to figure out what Sara could or could not handle, and how to deal with the sometimes scary flashbacks). One of the things most of them didn’t know was the fact that Gozaburo had implanted a device on Sara’s brain that could cause her excruciating pain, and physically hurt her when triggered, and that was why she had been bleeding after hurting Atem and Bakura on accident, she couldn’t cause pain to anybody without suffering herself, a good protective measure that Gozaburo had set up to make sure she’d never be able to retaliate for anything he did to her.  
“The worse part are the dreams” at this, Jou put her on his lap and held her as close as he could, gently caressing her back, and kissing her cheek, to make sure she knew that all of those things were part of the past, and would never happen again. “The dreams… the dreams… No puedo, por favor, no me obligues” she started crying softly.  
“¿Quieres que se lo diga yo?” asked Jou between kisses, and Sara nodded. “The jerk made Sara dream, gave her the life that she wanted, and then would tear it to pieces. It was psychological torture: he’d figure the things that she wanted most, gave them to her in a hallucinogenic state until she believed it was reality, and then took it all away and showed her another truth, she just was never sure which part was real and which one was just a dream”.  
“Is that why you always asked Great and I if we had done or said certain things?” Isono asked, flabbergasted. He had always thought it was merely a need for reassurance, not a need to figure out what was real and what was a product of Gozaburo’s sick imagination.  
“The only thing he could never touch was the name of her secret crush, she kept it safe, and that was why she had such a horrid time when Honda threaten her to tell me everything about her, so I would hate her even more, if she ever tried to call me Jou or say my name”.  
“I’ll be back” Bakura left, and when they quizzed Ryou, she simply shook her head. She was well aware that Honda and Bakura had never been on very friendly terms, and seeing how deep his cruelty ran, only made him madder. He needed to blow off some steam, and fast, or Honda might not live much longer. The only positive outcome seemed to be Miho jumping into Malik’s arms, and thanking him for being such an amazing man, unlike Honda. Both of them were blushing bright red, but had a big smile on their faces, and that made everyone happy. Isono was still quite upset, and when Mokuba and Greta came back with the food, he just held his wife and son tight, and cried, cried for the little girl who had been taken advantage of, hurt, abused, tortured, and punished for no reason other than to satisfy the sadistic tendencies of a horrible man. Bakura finally came back with bloody knuckles, but nobody said anything, they just ate and teased the new couple, tried to figure a good date for the wedding, color scheme, anything other than the ordeal Sara had recounted. She ate little, but Jou more than made up for it, and they enjoyed the rest of their time together. Before they were ready to leave, Bakura asked something to Jou, to which he nodded, and softly pushed Sara towards him.  
“Sara, come here” he grabbed her wrist, making her freeze for a second, “Sara, it’s me, and I won’t hurt you, come here” he pulled her softly towards him, looking into her eyes, with a neutral face “hug me”, he asked very seriously. Sara froze even more, but nodded. She understood that to finally beat Gozaburo and his abuse, she had to get over the things she feared in a safe way, and maybe then the pain would stop, maybe then the implant would not control her life any longer. Slowly, she let Bakura drag her closer, and closer, until they were mere inches apart, and he stopped, the last step was her choice, and she did it, she hugged him, and the smile on his face and hers were so radiant that all the other people present got teary eyed.  
“You didn’t hurt me, you didn’t hurt me, Ryou, I HUGGED HIM!!!!!” she shouted ecstatic, hugging Ryou next, and then grabbed Jou and kissed him senseless.  
“Dude, you need to do this more often” Jou said with a goofy, lovesick smile on his face once she was done.  
“Dad, dad, did you see that? Did you see that? I hugged him!!!!! And it didn’t hurt!! It didn’t hurt dad!!! It didn’t hurt!” Isono held her, hiding his tears, how could any person be that excited because a hug hadn’t hurt? But no matter the reason behind it, he was glad that she could finally hug someone whom he had always been afraid of.  
“Bakura, how did you know?” asked Mokuba quietly, trying to understand how to help his sister better, but he couldn’t fathom how a simple hug could be so powerful.  
“She kept using evasive maneuvers around me, and the only way to get over a fear like hers, is to let her know the truth, not all touch hurts”. Malik nodded, understanding very well where a fear like hers came from, and remembering the first time that she had been able to hug him, how good both of them had felt. “I think today she made amazing progress, and it will help her and Jou, or should I say Katsuya?” he wiggled his eyebrows.  
“Dude, you know I hate it when you say my name!” he whined.  
“Is that why you kiss me whenever I say it, to shut me up?” Sara was looking at him oddly, retreating slightly, until he whispered something in her ear, and made her blush brighter than a lightbulb.  
“It looks like you need to find a nickname for Jou no matter what” said Mokuba, who had seen what happened every time she said his given name.  
“Yeah, how about puppy?” teased Malik.  
“How about you…” Sara whispered something, and soon, Jou was too busy to fight with Malik any longer. “Uh, well, yeah, we should get going”.  
“And don’t worry, I’ll find my own nickname for my own boyfriend, brother” Sara hugged Malik goodbye. “Bakura, I owe you big time” Sara hugged Bakura again, and they left. Malik offered to walk Miho home, and she blushingly accepted. Things seemed to be going well for the two of them. Finally alone, Yugi and Atem decided it was time to get to bed themselves, and after saying good night, they went to their respective rooms to dream about their upcoming wedding, and the family that one day they wished to have.

Malik and Miho walked hand in hand, talking about themselves, their likes and dislikes, their dreams and plans, and Miho found Malik to be a very good listener, someone she felt comfortable with, and risking their budding relationship, she asked the question that had been bothering her for a long time, but if things were to move forward, she needed to remove all shadow of a doubt.  
“Do you mind if I ask you a very personal question?”  
“Go ahead”.  
“What is your relationship with Sara? I know that she’s been dating Jou for a couple of months now, but before, and even now, she seems to cling to you in a way that, I don’t know, and you guys are always finishing each other’s sentences, or you’re the only one who gets her jokes, it seems like, I don’t know…”  
“Like we are soul mates?” Miho just nodded. “That’s probably because we are, but not in a romantic way. We are what my sister calls soul twins, we are so similar in so many ways, complement each other, understand each other in a way and with a depth that is rare, but we have no romantic feelings for each other just as flesh and blood twins wouldn’t. Does it make sense?”  
“It does, but what about Jou?”  
“Oh, theirs is even a better one! Sara is such a unique person, so, I don’t know, Ishizu called her a golden soul, one soul so pure that evil cannot touch it. It doesn’t mean she’s perfect, but she can keep a certain air of innocence that anybody else in her circumstances would have lost, but to stay that way she needs extra help, and that is where Jou and I come into play. She needs both of us, and we both need her. Miho,” he stopped to look at her, holding both her hands “I really like you, but Sara is a huge part of my life, and hopefully always will be. She was my first friend, I love her as a I love my sister, and we understand each other without even speaking, we know each other that well, but I know that it can feel like I am cheating on you, but that is not the case. Sara and I are more than brother and sister, more than friends, we are a team, we balance each other out. I am the person I am today thanks to her, and she is where she is right now thanks to me, and anybody that wants to be part of my life needs to understand that Sara will always be one of my top priorities.”  
“Thank you Malik, thank you so much” she hugged him, surprising him. “I love Sara, she is truly great, and I do understand that you two have a very important relationship. As long as we can talk about it freely, I think we’ll be fine. I’d like to make it close to the top in your priority list someday, but I don’t want to usurp Ishizu’s or Sara’s place in your heart or your life, just like I expect you to respect the place that my family holds in mine”.  
“I’m glad you understand” and he kissed her sweetly. It was short, they were still in the early stages of their relationship, and didn’t want to rush anything, but they felt comfortable with their agreement and where they were at the moment, glad to have cleared the air of all doubt and possible misunderstandings.

“I got it!” Sara shouted, waking up Mokuba and making him hit his head on the roof of the limo. “Sorry Mokie, we are almost home, so it’s a good thing you’re awake now”.  
“What did you get?” he asked, yawning.  
“Mr. Jounouchi’s nickname, of course!”  
“Sis, we aren’t all thinking about Jou 24/7, unlike you, so I am very sorry, I am going to bed” and as soon as the limo stopped, he stumbled into the mansion and went to sleep.  
“Well, I guess I will wait to try it out when I see him again”, and went to sleep, with a smile on her face. Unfortunately, her dreams were less than sweet, but that didn’t stop her from trying to enjoy the idea of sharing her new nickname with her beloved boyfriend. Her nightmares woke her up several times, times that she used to try the new nickname and any variations that she could think of, and she liked it more and more every time. When morning finally arrived, she couldn’t wait to call Jou and see how he liked it, but things would not go smoothly for her today. The board of directors wanted Seto back to lead Kaiba Corp. during the holiday season that was approaching, while demanding him to make sure he had come up with new technology that would revolutionize the gaming industry in the coming year. With Isono’s help, she was able to patch a video call from “Seto” to satisfy the directors for the moment, but they wanted him back, or else. Sara was at a loss on what to do, she didn’t want Mokuba to lose the lifestyle he had grown accustomed to, but she couldn’t bring Seto Kaiba back to life for good, just like the board demanded. Having him quit might work, but where would all his hard earned money go? Mokuba was still a minor, and Seto was his guardian in the eyes of the law, what was she to do? And Jou? He had started work at Kaiba Corp. part time, while going to school, and if she were to leave Kaiba Corp. in the hands of the board of directors or someone else, there was no way that she could guarantee him the job he needed. It was quite a conundrum, and Jou wouldn’t be the only one affected. Over the years, Sara had been able to hire people who wouldn’t have a job otherwise, and they were able to keep their position thanks to Kaiba’s hiring policy that she had implemented right after Gozaburo’s death, mainly, that the only person who could fire anyone was Kaiba himself. It made more work for her, but that way she knew the people who really needed a job were able to have one. Some of the ones she had hired had found other positions elsewhere over time, but there was still a large amount of employees that would lose their livelihood if Kaiba retired permanently. What to do? The lack of sleep and amount of nightmares she had suffered the prior night wasn’t helping at all, and she had forgotten all about the wound that Bakura and Jou had so carefully taken care of the night before, and it was seriously hurting at the moment. She wanted to give up, give in, and forget everything and everyone for just one minute, but the pain hit her again, and in her weakened and exhausted state, turned out to be too much, so she fainted. When she awoke, she was still in Kaiba’s office, without a solution in sight and a few new bruises, so she decided to go for a walk when she ran into the person she needed to see the most.  
“Mokuba, shouldn’t you be in school?”  
“Teachers training or something of the sort, we got out early, what are you doing?”  
“I was going for a walk, I need to think, and I can’t do it cooped up here”.  
“Let’s go to the park, I’d like to talk to you about something”.  
“Alright, let’s go”.  
They walked in companionable silence until they reached a secluded bench on a nearby park.  
“What did you want to talk about?”  
“Why don’t we sell the mansion? And Kaiba Corp.? I see what those things are doing to you, I see parts of Seto that you need to keep alive to make sure that things run smoothly, and I see that it is killing you. When you started dating Jou, I thought things would finally turn around for you, but since he started working at KC, your nightmares have returned, you’re more stressed than before, and I can see you losing a little bit of the happiness that Jou brought you. We don’t need a big house, we don’t need KC, we probably can sell the shares and have more than enough to live on comfortably for the next 3 lifetimes! I just want to see you happy again, I want to see you smile all the time like you do when you’re with Jou, I want…”  
“What do you want Mokie? What do you really want?”  
“I want you and Jou to get married, but if you need to bring Seto back, that isn’t going to happen. I know what the board of directors want, Suki’s dad is part of it and she was telling me about all the things that her dad is trying to do to convince “the great Seto Kaiba to come reclaim his rightful place in the company”, and it scared me. I don’t want Seto back, I want to keep you…” he sniffled, embarrassed, since he was 15 after all, and men don’t cry!  
“Thank you Mokie, you’ve given me the incentive I needed. I will talk to the lawyers about the options that we have going forward, to protect our assets and also KCs employees. It might take a while, we might need Seto back to smooth things over, but I promise you, Sara isn’t going anywhere, do you hear me?” they hugged each other tight, and decided to just enjoy a few hours together, realizing that it might be a while until they’d have them again.  
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@  
October 24th, 1500 hours.  
Ryou hated going to the base, so she asked Sara to accompany her, since Yugi and Atem were both busy at the shop preparing their Halloween sale, and Miho was at school. Bakura was supposed to meet them, but his meeting was going on for longer than expected, so they were just walking around, waiting for him to be done. Suddenly, a group of soldiers approached them, and making lewd comments, were trying to get them to follow them somewhere more private. Ryou was terrified, and Sara simply froze, unable to move, even though their actions were more than inappropriate. But she snapped when one of them went to grab Ryou; she was frenzied, defending her friend like all of Hell’s minions were after her. A couple of the soldiers went flying, one ended up unconscious, and the other two decided to go get their captain to stop the crazy lady that didn’t know how to have a good time. When they were alone, Sara held Ryou protectively against herself, trying to keep her calm while they waited for Bakura to come find them.  
“Are you alright? You need to see a doctor, your baby might be hurt, I’m so sorry Ryou, I’m so sorry I didn’t stop them sooner, please forgive me, forgive me Ryou…”  
“How did you know about the baby?” asked Ryou, baffled. They had kept it a secret from the group because they didn’t want to get their hopes up to have them dashed again, especially now that Atem and Yugi had finally decided on a date, and were now busy looking for a venue, caterers, flowers and all the trimmings.  
“Sara, Sara, it’s me, Bakura” he said, approaching slowly, and did not touch her until he was fully into view. “Hi there Sara, I see you were busy”.  
“Bakura, they were trying to hurt Ryou and your baby, they were going to kill your baby, I couldn’t let them touch your baby” she wailed, holding her friend tight.  
“Sara, this officer here needs to talk to you” Bakura said gently, while another one tried to get Sara off of Ryou.  
“NO, they were trying to hurt her and your baby, I cannot let them kill your baby Bakura, I cannot let them hurt your baby or your Ryou, don’t let them hurt them Bakura, please, don’t let them hurt them, I failed you, I am so sorry, please forgive me” she was crying in earnest, terrified for her friends and their unborn child.  
“Alright Sara, can I hold Ryou? Please? I just need to make sure all three of you are alright, but they cannot check Ryou if you are holding her, okay?” Sara relinquished her hold on Ryou, just for Bakura, but would not allow anybody else to touch her. Bakura had to hold a gasp when he saw the state she was in, bloody and bruised, her arm held at an unnatural angle, and favoring her right leg. “We need to have a doctor look at you Sara, come with me”.  
“NO, Ryou is bleeding, you need to get her seen first! I am fine, your baby Bakura, your baby, your wife, I failed, I failed…” she couldn’t stop the tears, and didn’t realize that the blood was hers, not Ryou’s.  
The officers accompanying Bakura stayed back, seeing the shape that the frenzied Sara had left their companions in, but the captain made a terrible mistake when he approached her from behind and grabbed her collar. Up he went, just like Atem had done long ago, and she went over to Ryou, protecting her with her own body from any unseen danger. When the startled captain came to, he laughed, and said “We could use more people like her! Who tried to attack this lovely ladies?” he asked Bakura, seeing how he seemed to be the only one with any knowledge of the situation.  
“Nobody attacked them! We were just talking nicely to them, helping them pass the time, when this crazy lady went berserk and started attacking everyone!” claimed one of the soldiers who had gone to get some help.  
“YOU DARED TO TOUCH RYOU!” she yelled, red with fury, ice in her voice, and a glare that would have made Seto Kaiba himself quake in his boots.  
“It is true sir, they were harassing her, but she didn’t react until one of the men tried to grab me” said Ryou, quietly but firmly.  
“She was protecting my wife and unborn child, sir” said Bakura, and signaled something to the captain, who looked closely at her, and almost gaped. How could she had thrown him like that with a dislocated shoulder and hurt leg! And she was bleeding from unseen wounds.  
“How about we take them to the doctor, so he can see to your wife and baby, alright lieutenant?” they understood each other. The captain had seen enough men badly hurt, unwilling to get help, until their mates were safe.  
“Thank you, sir” Bakura guided them to the doctor, while the captain dealt with the situation at hand.  
“You attacked two civilians in this base, without provocation, hurt one of them seriously, and put at risk the life of the wife and baby of one of the best men I have under my command. You’ll be lucky if you aren’t court martialed for this. Dismissed!” nobody dared going against their captain, he was known for being merciless, but fair.  
Sara followed Ryou and Bakura closely, and would not allow anybody to touch them or herself, growling at anybody who got too close, and getting into an offensive stance. The captain made sure to follow them at a safe distance to prevent antagonizing the already strung up Sara, while trying to figure out the punishment he would dole out to those men who had dared to try and defile 2 innocent women. He was aware that he was harsh, but his own daughter had had a close call with rape, and he had seen the same fear, the same hopelessness, in Sara’s eyes as he had seen in his daughter for months after the incident, and that broke his heart. When they got to the doctor, Sara refused to leave Ryou’s side, he didn’t trust one of the nurses, and she was probably right, she tended to flirt a lot, even with married men on and off base, and she wouldn’t relax until she left. In the meantime, the captain was trying to get a hold of the psychiatrist on base, to try and figure out how the doctor could treat Sara. So far, she hadn’t let him get near, not even after seeing that Ryou and her baby were fine. She just wanted him to keep an eye on her friend and leave her alone, Ryou had bled, and she wanted to make sure that she wouldn’t lose another baby. Nobody could convince Sara that the blood she saw was her own, and she would back away from the doctor and nurses. Not knowing the extent of her injuries, they didn’t dare restrain her, and Bakura knew that she had problems with sedatives, but Malik knew more about that than himself. While trying to figure out what to do with the hurt girl, the captain heard a ruckus over by the front desk, and went to investigate, while he waited for the psychiatrist to show up to help. He found a very angry blond, swearing up a storm, trying to convince the receptionist to let him see Sara, he knew for a fact that she was there, and was going to call the president if necessary because the army had kidnapped her and were keeping her hostage, to experiment on her or use her amazing skills, and on and on he went. His smile left his face immediately when he saw another blond man next to the paranoid one. He was quiet, unmoving, but his eyes were hot as coals, dark, and dangerous. If he had found such a man during one of his missions, he would have taken him down immediately, he was a threat, a very dangerous threat, cold, calculating, and biding his time. He needed to diffuse the situation immediately, and maybe these new arrivals could help the doctor treat Sara, since they were unable to do so at the moment.  
“Is either one of you gentlemen Malik Ishtar?” the dangerous one glowered and nodded, approaching the captain cautiously, weighing his options, assessing the situation, and finding that he was a means to his end, decided to trust him for the moment.  
“He is Malik, and I am Jou, we are here to get Sara NOW” the angry blond had stopped swearing, and now the captain saw a wildness, and an anger to match the other man’s. These two were dangerous on their own, together, they would be lethal. Maybe they could help him teach a lesson to those loose cannons that had attacked the young women, and were rumored to take liberties with other women, but had never been found guilty, mostly because nobody wanted to rat out a brother. “Follow me, please. Sara is hurt, and the doctor cannot treat her, she will not let him near her”.  
“WHO TOUCHED HER!?!” the one called Jou bellowed, but calmed down immediately when Malik touched his forearm and shook his head. Yes, he was a dangerous one. “Where is she?”  
“Right this way”.  
“Captain, we were able to finally calm her down, we tricked her and gave her some morphine”.  
“No!” Malik said, Jou blanched, and both ran into the room, trying to get to Sara as quickly as they could. Her breathing was shallow, and labored, her eyes were closed, and Jou was trying to help her sit up, but she was dead weight in his arms.  
“She needs and epinephrine shot right now, and who was the dummy that ignored Bakura telling them not to sedate her?” Malik’s eyes had been scary before; they were deadly now.  
“How did you know that Bakura said anything?” an orderly defended the doctor.  
“Everyone knows that Sara CANNOT handle sedatives of any kind, and they’re vocal about it, so where is that shot?” he hissed.  
“Doctor, get her something NOW” Jou shouted when Sara started turning blue, she wasn’t breathing, her heart had stopped beating. Bakura took Ryou out of the room to give the doctor space to maneuver, and dragged the captain with him. The sassy orderly followed soon after, thrown out of the room by an unknown arm.  
“Captain, these people are crazy! That guy just threw me out when I told him he had to leave!”  
“Those two guys in there are Sara’s only chance of survival captain, I’ve seen it happen before. If they leave, she’ll die” Bakura interrupted, very serious, and Ryou nodded, remembering the time when Jou had pulled Sara out of a coma.  
“Alright, we’ll make sure they can stay with her at all times. There is something about that girl that makes me want to make her happy, I don’t know what it is”.  
“Yeah, I’ve seen that before, it’s most likely because of your daughter sir”.  
“What do you mean?”  
“Sara experienced what your daughter was spared since the time she was 4 years old until she was 13, that tugs at the heart of anyone who recognizes a lost innocence, a blighted life”.  
“Did you say 4 years old?” Bakura just nodded. “I want your friends to teach those thugs a lesson, a lesson that they won’t forget”.  
“Captain, you need to see this sir” a nurse came out to get the captain, motioning for Bakura and Ryou to follow him. What he saw, chilled his blood and brought tears to his eyes. They had finally been able to immobilize the shoulder, and reposition the dislocated hip, but the scars on Sara’s body were plainly visible, and showed a map to her pain filled life. Jou was trying to hold her still with Malik’s help, and it was no easy task. She didn’t trust the doctor or the nurses, since they had tried to kill her already, and now they were curing her new wounds, while asking never ending questions about her scars. All she wanted to do was go home and forget this day ever happened. Tomorrow was going to be hard enough; she didn’t need to add to it by starting the nightmare early. She was spared fresh humiliation and more questions when the psychiatrist entered the room, and with a quick look, assessed the situation pretty well.  
“Everyone out, except the patient’s friends and the captain, I want everyone out, NOW!” and they begrudgingly left, leaving some of the wounds half treated, but that didn’t matter to Sara at the moment, she was thankful to whoever had rescued her from the horror they were putting her through.  
“I like you” she said simply, and cuddled closer to Jou, while grabbing Malik’s hand and holding it close to her chest.  
“Any of you know enough to finish helping her with her wounds?” Bakura and Malik did “right, get to it, and work around the blond growth without removing it” Jou grunted, but Sara laughed. “All right, what happened?” Ryou gave her version of the events, with Sara nodding in some cases, and looking bewildered in others.  
“I don’t remember some of that stuff happening…” she murmured, worrying that maybe the medicine had given her a slight case of amnesia.  
“What do you remember?” he asked.  
“What is your name?”  
“Dr. Gibson”  
“Dr. Gibson, all I remember is the punk trying to grab Ryou, and I was worried about her baby, so I stopped him, then that quack looked at her, checked the baby’s heart, and called it all good”. Dr. Gibson laughed heartily.  
“I have to agree with your assessment of Dr. Anso”  
“Dr. Asno? No wonder he’s a quack” Jou laughed, knowing what Asno meant, but nobody else caught it.  
“Yes dear, he’s a donkey, very much so” and they understood.  
“Captain, I think we found a good nickname for Dr. Anso, don’t you think?” Dr. Gibson asked, smiling.  
“You can always blame it on a slight case of dyslexia” quipped Sara, holding Jou tighter, something that the very observant doctor noticed.  
“How did he punish you when you had troubles reading?” he asked her. She simply turned and let the gown slip slightly open to show her back more clearly. “And the other ones?”  
“These ones were when I said anything during his training sessions” she pointed at her legs “these ones were for sloppy handwriting, and the left arm were for bad table manners. The collar was always on, that was why I wore turtlenecks, to hide it from Mokuba. That one was for everything he didn’t like or I didn’t do right. Then he was able to make the implant work, so he could punish me remotely, and randomly” her expression was dead, blank, and scared Jou more than a meltdown would.  
“What training did you do to manage to throw the captain down?”  
“Martial Arts, I’m working on my 3rd degree black belt”.  
“How old are you?”  
“I’ll be 19 tomorrow”  
“Wow, you must have started young!”  
“My birth parents started me when I was 4, and the instructor continued throughout my time at the orphanage and with my stepfather”.  
“Why so young?”  
“So I wouldn’t get hurt again, but it didn’t work” understanding dawned on all present, and Jou kissed her temple, whispering reassuring words to her, helping her feel safe while she was in his arms, and it worked: for the first time in her life, Sara had found a safe haven, and she refused to let it go.  
“Captain, I have seen some serious cases of PTSD, abuse, and everything in between, and I must say, I am impressed those punks are still alive and kicking. This woman is innocent, all she did was defend herself and her friend even if they didn’t touch her, the possibility was very real. They were outnumbered, and she just evened the odds until help came. Those thugs need a lesson”.  
“And I know who can give it to them” he motioned to Bakura to follow him outside, while Dr. Gibson chatted with the other 4 about ways to help Sara and Ryou deal with the stress and flashbacks of the day’s ordeal. Some of the techniques he recommended were ones Sara had already used, but there were some new ones that she found helpful.  
In the meantime, the captain was giving instructions to Bakura on how to deal with the culprits, and letting him know what he could and would do to help. It was past time that those men paid for harassing and hurting women, and finally, they had found a way.  
“Do you think they will agree?”  
“I’m sure of it, sir”.  
“If it turns out well, I will write the recommendation you were after and give you the extra hours you needed to retire so you can go teach at the academy. You have a beautiful wife, and a baby on the way, I don’t want to be the one to give her a flag, understood?”  
“Yes sir, thank you, sir” Bakura saluted, and went to tell Ryou the good news.  
Dr. Gibson came out to talk to the captain for a while, and make sure that the earlier incidents would never occur again.  
“You recognized her abuse, didn’t you Gil?”  
“Just like you did Don, I’ve seen it before in my own daughter, you’ve seen it in your patients, I just don’t know how she survived all of that. Since she was 4…”  
“Look at where she’s at now, look at what she’s accomplished, maybe it will help Mia to have hope in the future once again”.  
“I wish she could see this wonderful woman, I’m sure it would help her a lot”.  
“You could always ask her. She might say no, denial is still strong within her, but she has accepted some of the things that happened to her, and it might help both Mia and Sara to talk. They could both see me at the same time, outside of base”.  
“Don, you are brilliant!”  
“Of course I am” both man laughed.

“So you can retire earlier? Oh, ‘Kura, that is so incredible!”  
“Just one more thing I need to do dear, and the captain will give me the hours and recommendations I need. Guys, can I talk to you for a second? I think Sara is ready to go, and she’ll need help getting dressed, and no Jou, no peeking!”  
“Oh man…” he groaned.  
“Malik can tell you there is not much you are missing” Sara told him, confusing him at first, then getting angry and jealous, and finally deciding that he would wait to see for himself.  
“Gentlemen, before you go on your little excursion, I’d like to ask you a question. Do you think Sara would be willing to talk to my daughter and Dr. Gibson about some of the things that happened to her and how she overcame them? Mia is still struggling, she feels hopeless, but after seeing Sara smile and laugh regardless of the ordeal that she has gone through just today, well…”  
“I’m sure she wouldn’t have a problem sir, but please, could you wait to ask her? Her birthday is tomorrow, and…”  
“Not a problem, Bakura still has some things he’ll need to do around the base, so I will be able to keep in touch, and I will wait until he tells me it is a good time”. After some parting words on all sides, Bakura and his friends went on their little mission with the captain, and Dr. Gibson went to check on Sara and Ryou and telling them that since the boys were busy, he was treating them to dinner, as a way of apologizing for the mishap.  
“Alright, we accept” Sara said, moving carefully so as not to hurt herself further. Ryou was a little worried, after all, their plan to help Jou prepare for Sara’s birthday had gone awry, but she was hoping that he still had enough time to make sure his surprise would be ready for tomorrow, and that Bakura and Malik were helping him. She couldn’t be more wrong, but the satisfaction all three men felt after “teaching the boys a lesson” was priceless. Once it was over, Bakura saw a message from Ryou telling him to meet them at the Blue Lotus so they could go home together.

Ryou, Sara, and Don (he insisted he wasn’t doctoring anyone at the moment, so the title was useless) had a great time at dinner. He recounted some very amusing cases, either ones he had treated himself, or had studied, and the girls spent most of their time together laughing, and that was how the boys found them, laughing their heads off over empty dessert plates. They were glad that the girls had enjoyed themselves so much and had been able to forget to a certain point what had happened earlier in the day, so they decided to not bring it up with the rest of the gang, unless either Ryou or Sara decided to do so themselves.  
“Before you go, I have a question, how did you know about the baby?” asked Don curiously. He had found out during dinner that Ryou’s pregnancy was a well-kept secret.  
“It was obvious! Bakura treated her like she was going to break, we never got together to eat anything for a while or the morning sickness would have been obvious, and they had this goofy smile on their face whenever they thought nobody was looking, and that” she pointed at Bakura, who was holding Ryou’s hand over her abdomen, “holding hands with their baby all the time”.  
“That is such a cute way of saying it! I love it! ‘Kura, we’re holding hands with our baby”  
“I heard dear” he grumbled, but the smile on his face belied his tone.  
“It was a pleasure to spend time with you, lovely ladies, and I look forward to meeting you again” Don kissed both their hands, and left to pay the bill.  
Ryou and Bakura went home shortly after, and Sara was going to drop off Malik and Jou at their respective homes when she remembered what tomorrow was.  
“Alright, let’s go home” said Jou happily.  
“We should take Malik home first before I drop you off Jou”.  
“Drop me off?” Jou queried at the same time that Malik asked “take me home first?”  
“We’re having a sleepover!” they said in unison.  
“What?” Sara was confused, and didn’t dare to hope.  
“It’s your birthday tomorrow, so we’re having a sleepover. Isono should have the room ready for us”.  
“What?” she asked again, hope growing steadily in her heart.  
“Dear, you’re very smart, but your brain cells seem to be asleep at the moment, so let’s go home so you can let that genius brain of yours rest” Jou kissed her temple gently, and they all went to the mansion for their sleepover.  
Isono had set up fake grass, a tent, and had even started a fire on the fireplace, all so Sara and the boys could go “camping”. There was room enough for 6 people in the tent, but all three sleeping bags had been put close together in the middle, and all around them were stuffed animals of all sorts: unicorns, cats, dogs, bears, dragons, cows, meerkats, penguins, and only Greta and Isono knew what else. Sara cried when she saw that the sleeping bag in the middle was Batman themed, and on either side was a Robin and Nightwing themed sleeping bag.  
“I still don’t get your obsession with Batman Sara, I love you, but I don’t get it”.  
“Neither do I” concurred Malik.  
“That is easily solved” Isono said from the door, and left, bringing back a TV on a rolling table. After he plugged it in, the Batman theme song started to play, so they all settled on the fake grass to try and figure out why Sara loved Batman so much. After watching that episode, both boys understood her need to feel like she could be who she chose to be, no matter what anybody else said, no matter what her fear dictated, she could decide for herself to be Sara or whoever she wanted, and both boys vowed to themselves to help her achieve her goal. Sara had fallen asleep during the credits, curled up to Jou but with a hand trying to reach out to Malik. Very carefully, making sure that she wouldn’t get hurt, they put her in the sleeping bag, and got themselves ready to try and sleep. They weren’t sure it would happen, Isono had told them of the blood curling screams that came from Sara’s room the day before her birthday, the dazed state of the poor girl throughout that whole day that should have been a happy one, and the seemingly endless tears and sobs that could be heard until her birthday was officially over. Nobody knew what had happened to the body, and Gozaburo had taken that secret to his grave, so Sara had no place to mourn her loss other than in her own mind, and even though she knew in her mind that she had no guilt, her heart betrayed her every year, and tortured her, just like her stepfather had planned, a never ending nightmare on what should have been a happy day. But Jou and Malik had decided that enough was enough, and this would be the first of many happier birthdays, or so they hoped.  
Just as it had happened every year, as soon as midnight came and it was officially October 25th, the screams started. But this time, Sara wasn’t alone, this time, Sara would be loved through the night by her brother and her love, Sara would cry but not mourn alone any longer, Sara would grieve, and this time, time would help her heal, because finally her soul had found a resting place, her heart a safe harbor, and her mind a peaceful haven. For first time in 5 years, the night wasn’t filled with unending screams, but tears, love, laughter, more tears, hugs, kisses, and more love than Sara had ever felt before. She was starting to heal.  
The day dawned grey and cloudy, but when the Sun peeked through the clouds, it found three friends holding each other tight, fast asleep, with tear tracks on their peaceful faces, so it decided to hide again and let them rest a while longer. Around 9, Isono peeked in the room that Jou, Malik, Greta and himself had prepared with so much love and care, and had to laugh. All three teens were literally buried under the stuffed toys, with both boys having an arm around Sara, and Sara holding both of their hands and using a little Batman plushy for a pillow. He had to admit that at first he was worried about Jou’s plan of sleeping all together surrounded by toys, but Greta’s enthusiasm and Jou’s puppy eyes had convinced him to try, and it looked like he had been right. While he was watching them, Sara stirred, waking the other two boys up, so after saying good morning, he went to ask the cook if she could make them all breakfast. Nobody would say “Happy Birthday” to Sara yet, they hadn’t done it since her loss, but Jou hoped that by the end of the day they’d be able to. A very sleepy and rumpled Jou came skidding into the kitchen, panting slightly, and asked Isono “did you get it? I completely forgot about it!”  
He smiled and nodded, and Jou sighed, relieved, and went to the guest room he normally used to get ready for the day, while Greta went to help Sara get dressed. Mokuba had gone to school, even though he had wanted very much to stay, but Jou had convinced him that it would be better if Sara could just cry and mourn without having to worry how it would affect her brother, and he understood, but was slightly jealous since both Malik and Jou would be there, privy to Sara’s most vulnerable moments, and they weren’t even related to her! But Jou had told him the great surprise he had prepared for Sara, and that helped him feel a little bit better, since only Mokuba and Isono knew about it, not even Malik or Greta had any idea what Jou was planning. Maybe this would not be a horrible birthday for Sara after all, maybe this could be her first happy birthday in years.  
Breakfast was a quiet affair, all three teens were deep in their thoughts, and as much as Isono and Greta wanted to be there for their daughter, they knew that the boys would be of more help than they, so they just tried to make Jou’s and Malik’s plans run as smoothly as possible, and left them alone, but ready to lend a hand if needed. While Malik and Sara finished their breakfast, the human vacuum went to check on the surprise he had for later that day, and asked for the limo to be ready soon, so they could go to a very special place Malik had found, a place that after today, would be even more special. Sara didn’t seem to want to move, and Malik let her to her own thoughts for a few minutes, but when he saw Jou, he made her get up and follow him, not saying a word until they were well under way.  
“We hope you like what we have in store for you”.  
“Everybody has worked hard at it” said Jou, grinning like a madman, hoping that their idea would help Sara heal further.  
“And we mean EVERYBODY!” clarified Malik, getting into the spirit of the gift. Soon, they stopped by a dirt path, too narrow for a car, but it good shape for walking, with trees flanking both sides. They walked in silence for just a few minutes, listening to the still unseen creek, until they reached a little grove, where a beautiful, brand new gazebo stood. There were benches on all sides of the gazebo, and they sat on one of them, letting Sara enjoy the beauty and peace that surrounded them.  
“Do you like it?” Jou couldn’t contain his curiosity any longer.  
“I love it, it’s beautiful!” she said, smiling.  
“Phew, Bakura was so pessimistic, he made even Yugi doubt that you’d enjoy it!”  
“What do you mean?”  
“He means that we all built this for you” clarified Malik, and gestured over to one of the sides, where an inscription could be read. ‘In loving memory of Kit Kat Harper, October 25th 8:00 – October 25th 18:03. You’ll always be in our hearts’. And the same inscription was repeated on all sides, in different handwriting, it was carved by different hands, and she could tell who had written which one. There was a blank space, and Sara assumed it was left for her. “This one is yours” confirmed Malik, “everyone wanted to say something special, or do something unique, we didn’t know what, and Jou came up with the idea to do a little memorial for your little one, and, well, here you have it!”  
“It is beautiful” Sara was crying, and Jou lifted her chin up, making her face the ceiling, and what she saw, made her cry even more. There were drawings of a baby, of what her little Katsuya could have looked like, all in black and white, with a copy of an ultrasound picture in the middle.  
“Isono found that picture with some of the devil’s papers, so he made a copy onto a tile, and he put it there. That is him, the other drawings were Miho’s interpretation of what he could have looked like. Isn’t she an amazing artist?” pride was evident in Malik’s voice, and Sara couldn’t stop the flow of tears, tears of loss, tears of pain, but also healing tears, tears of hope and friendship. Her little Kit Kat hadn’t lived for long, but he’d live in her heart forever, and now, thanks to her friends, other people would know about her precious little one.  
Jou put some blankets and pillows on the gazebo’s floor, and the driver gave him a basket, leaving them once they were settled, and the three friends spent the day reminiscing about the building of the gazebo, all the plans and secret meetings, all the work that everyone had put in to make sure that it would be perfect. Even Mokuba had contributed by paying for the land, the materials, some hired help, and of course, inscribing one of the plaques. Sara felt better than she had felt in a long time, and enjoyed the day just hanging out and remembering, imagining how life would have been if things had worked out differently, and planning for a happier future. All of a sudden, a snore startled both her and Jou; apparently, Malik had fallen asleep without them noticing, and before Sara woke him up so they could all go home, Jou kissed her and asked her to wait for a few minutes, he has on more surprise for her, and he wanted to give it to her in front of Kit Kat.  
“I know we haven’t been dating very long, but I’ve known for quite a while that I want you in my life in a permanent way, at least, as permanent as I can make it” he was babbling nervously. He had a whole speech prepared with Mokuba’s help, and had practiced it over and over, all to no avail. He forgot it all when he saw the look on Sara’s face, awe and love mixed with fear? “What’s wrong? If you don’t want to, I understand, I…” she cut him off with a loving kiss.  
“Are you sure? Are you sure you want me? I am broken, I am a mess, I am no good. You’re almost perfect, you could have anyone you wanted and…”  
Now it was his turn to stop her “and I want you, if you’ll have me. Sara, te amo, te casaras conmigo?” he asked softly, fearing her answer.  
“Si, si, si, mil veces si!” she shouted, waking up Malik, who didn’t know what was going on until he saw Jou out a necklace on Sara’s neck, with a ring hanging from it.  
“It’s your size, but I know how much you dislike jewelry, and you only slightly tolerate necklaces, so I thought I could get you a ring you could wear either on your finger or around your neck. I know it isn’t fancy, but I thought that this leather would be softer than any other metal, I hope I did alright”.  
Sara couldn’t respond, she was mesmerized by the beautiful engagement ring, and the inscription in it.  
“A Batman ring? You got her a BATMAN RING? Jou, I know she loves Batman, but what kind of engagement ring is THAT?”  
“The perfect one” Sara said, showing Malik the fact that the Batman symbol was on a blue background instead of the typical yellow, and the inscription read ‘My hero, mi amor’.  
“Shouldn’t at least say heroine?”  
“Sounds too druggy, and I’m too cool for it, as addictive as my kisses might be” she answered, completely serious. She hated that men could be heroes, but heroine was also a deadly drug, nope, she didn’t like it at all, and Jou knew it. It was one of her pet peeves that sometimes she spouted with no rhyme or reason, and was afterwards embarrassed about admitting, such as her deep dislike for cut flowers or the word hate. Jou knew so many of her quirks and still loved her in spite of them, or maybe because of them, whatever the reason, he made her feel special, unique, loved, important, clean, beautiful, safe. Those reasons might not matter much to anybody else, but they were vital to Sara, and that was why she was sure that if both worked together, their marriage would succeed.  
“Well, I guess we should get going home, or I’ll fall asleep again, and as a very conscientious chaperone, I cannot allow you two to be left alone for long, so we’re going”.  
“Chaperone? We’re engaged!”  
“Exactly, Mr. Jou, you’re engaged, now you have to be more careful than ever with my beloved sister, or you’ll have a very angry mob chasing you for the rest of what would be your very short and painful life” Malik was dead serious. He knew that a part of Sara had died when she had been raped the first time, and Gozaburo had kept making it worse and worse over time, but she still held on to the belief that sexual relations were best kept within the bounds of marriage. The little that she remembered about her parents, that had been a big deal to them, and in her mother’s journals, she had read about her hopes for her daughter to find someone who could overlook her past and treat her like the innocent she really was. It looked like Jou would fulfill her mother’s and her own hopes and dreams, and she was so happy with that knowledge that she tackled Malik.  
“Don’t worry broski, Jou treats me like a queen, and respects and loves me, we’ll be fine” she gave him another big hug, and they laughed. Even if Jou hadn’t agreed with her on the matter, he’d do anything to make her dreams come true. Someone had taken her virginity, Gozaburo had tried to taint her innocence, but Jou would treat her as the jewel that she was in his eyes, and give her one of the things that they had tried to take away from her, he was going to respect her wishes and let her want him, and feel wanted in return.  
“I don’t think we’ll have any problem at all, Sara has a whole posse of “virtueguards” around her 24/7” and she pointed at Sara herself “I don’t want to go flying, end up unconscious, or with broken bones or all of the above, man, she’s a black belt, she could turn me into a pretzel if she wanted!” Sara beamed, and Malik smiled in approval, realizing once more how well Jou knew what Sara needed, and right now the reassurance that Sara was able to defend herself was what she needed the most.  
“I think the pretzel look might be an improvement for you though” Malik teased, and they bickered back and forth all the way to the waiting limo and back to the mansion. Once again, the sleeping arrangements were the same, but this time, they ate s’mores, popcorn and burgers while watching old comedies with Mokuba. All of them fell asleep before the movie was over, so Isono just asked the maids to clean up the next morning, and let them rest while they could, and took Mokuba to his own bed. Amazingly enough, Sara slept well that night, dreaming of her little Kit Kat and a wonderful life with Katsuya and her friends. The next morning Sara didn’t want to get up, she was too happy to go back to the real world, where she would have to work her tail off at figuring out what to do with KC, the employees that were at risk of losing their job security, selling the mansion, finding someplace to live, etc. But Malik made her get up anyway, there was one last surprise for her, a post-birthday present, but she had to get ready for it. Easier said than done, Jou was clinging to her like a koala, and wouldn’t let her go, and Malik couldn’t pull her and risk hurting her, so they were at an impasse: dumping water on Jou would get Sara wet, but not getting him up kept her from getting ready. Malik told her to just kiss him and be done with it, but she shook her head, she hadn’t brushed her teeth the night before and didn’t want Jou breaking the engagement due to her morning breath. Malik laughed so loud at the sheer silliness of it all that woke Jou up, problem solved! The maids kicked them all out to clean up the mess, so they went to their rooms to get ready for the last surprise, and Jou and Sara would surprise everyone in return with their engagement. They had agreed on waiting until Jou could ask Isono for permission to marry Sara, even though it was backwards, he had been so unsure about himself he didn’t want the daddy talk for no reason at all, so he had asked Sara first, and he’d ask Isono if she agreed, but that plan went out the window when he saw Great and Sara dancing around the kitchen, giggling like mad, while Isono looked on, smiling, but not joining in the craziness.  
“Saaaaaaaaaraaaaaaaa… you were supposed to wait!” and Jou was treated to the fastest Spanish he had heard in his life, and understood nothing of it. Isono just waited until Sara ran out of things to say, Greta was still ogling the beautiful ring, and Jou stood there, mouth agape, trying to figure out what his fiancée was talking about.  
“Be thankful she isn’t yelling any of this, it gets worse when she yells”.  
“So?” Sara asked after her little rant.  
“What? I have no idea what you said, I love you very much, but I think I need Spanish lessons to understand half of what you said” he confessed.  
“Don’t worry about it then, just ask dad while I show everyone else the ring”  
“We’re going to be late if you plan on doing that Sara, how about after your surprise?” said Malik, trying to make sure they were there on time.  
“Yeah, how about you wait in the car? I’ll be out in a second” Jou shooed them away to talk to Isono on his own “I know I should have asked you before I asked Sara but… I wasn’t sure she was going to say yes, we’ve been dating less than 6 months, and… but I wanted to do it on her birthday, I want all her birthdays to have good memories attached to them, I want her to celebrate her life again, I want her to be happy, I… I… I love her more than I thought possible, and I’d do anything to help her achieve her dreams” he stopped for a second, and Isono used the time to ask him a question.  
“What if I told you I knew she was better off without you, and the best that you could do for her would be to leave her”.  
“You cannot mean that” Isono just nodded “I… I… I… don’t agree with you, but if she agrees with you then, then, then I guess I’ll let her go, but I’m going to still be her friend! I need to make sure she is happy, you know?” he was close to tears, but fought valiantly to keep them at bay, there was no way he was crying in front of the older man.  
“And if I forbid you to even be her friend?”  
“NO! She needs friends, as many as she can get, and I’ll be the best friend I can be to her my entire life! I’ll never leave her, not even if she wants me to, I’ll just watch her from afar if I need to, but I won’t ever leave her!” he couldn’t care less about the tears streaming down his face, he wasn’t going to abandon Sara, no matter what anyone said, even Sara herself! He knew things might be difficult, he loved her very much, but if just being friends was the best for her then… Isono hugged Jou so tight that he almost felt his eyes bulging.  
“It will be very hard Jou, her abuse was brutal, and long lasting, and there are things that you’ll both have to face together, and it will not be easy or pretty. But I can tell that you really love my daughter, and will do anything to help her be happy, so you have my hearty consent, and one piece of advice: go see this counselor together, before you get married, so you can have the best start possible. And thank you for asking her first, she would have felt forced if you had asked me first. Oh son, you’re so good for her!!” and he hugged him again, and now both men shed tears of joy, and their bond was strengthened.  
“Did Mokuba tell you what the last surprise is?” Isono nodded, “do you and mom want to come see her face when she hears?” he nodded again, unable to use his voice when he heard Jou call his wife ‘mom’. Jou’s mother had never been around since the divorce, not even after Jou’s dad had passed away almost a year prior, so Jou was to all intents and purposes, an orphan, starved for affection as much as Sara had been, and they’d be glad to love him as another son. “Let’s go then, the gang is waiting!” and dragged Isono out to the limo, followed by a very happy Greta.  
The gang had been patiently waiting for Jou and company to show up, so they could give Sara the last of her surprises, but they were the ones surprised when she came in and told everyone “GUESS WHAT?!?! WE’RE ENGAGED!”  
“And there goes the surprise...” said Jou, shaking his head. The girls crowded around Sara, looking at the ring, and oohing at the inscription, even though not one of them quite understood why “hero” and a Batman ring, but Sara was so happy, they were just happy with her. The boys were congratulating Jou, and once things calmed down a little, they went into the living room to share the last surprise for Sara.  
“Why a Batman ring?” Miho asked Malik quietly, while Mokuba directed everyone to sit around the table, with Sara at one of the ends, and Mokuba at the other. He told her quickly and quietly, so they could focus on the guest of honor.  
“Sara, we have been working on this for a while, besides your gazebo. Do you remember how much you wanted to help everyone at KC, but not have to need Seto ever again? Well, we’ve figured it out! The lawyers have helped us figure things out, we have found another CEO, we’ve also figured a way to make sure you can use Seto’s funds, sold the mansion, and found a good shop that Jou and Malik could run with you and Miho once they’re done with school". Sara was ecstatic, all her dreams seemed to be coming true, thanks to her friends and family.  
“What about you Mokuba?”  
“Oh, I’ll go to school myself and figure out what I want to do that doesn’t involve KC, I don’t think that working 100 hours a week will make me happy, getting someone else to run it is the best decision for both of us” Sara got up to hug him, and thank everyone else for all their efforts. Things were looking up for them, their present and future looked bright, and for first time in many years Sara said “Happy Birthday to me”.  
“Is your wedding going to be Batman themed too?” Miho asked, making everyone laugh, and Malik hugged her, he knew the gang had a strong bond, but none as strong as the one between himself, Sara, Jou, and hopefully Miho.

1 year later…  
“Sara, Sara dear, you need to get up” Greta shook her.  
“I don’t want to…”  
“Jou is going to be a very disappointed groom then” at that, Sara jumped out of bed and went to take a shower, almost forgetting to take off her pajamas to do so. “HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAR!” she shouted, but Sara didn’t hear a thing, she was too busy being nervous about the wedding. During the last year, Jou and her had hit some bumps on their relationship, mainly due to the abuse and neglect that both had suffered, but thanks to dr. Gibson’s help and a couple’s counselor, they felt ready to take the next step. They had hit a couple of snags on their plans, with Shizuka not being able to attend, Yugi in bed rest for the rest of her pregnancy, Miho sick herself and stuck in Egypt where Malik and her had gone to visit Ishizu and Odion before they tied the knot themselves. It seemed like there wouldn’t be many of their friends sharing their happy day, and Sara had offered Jou to change the date several times to give at least Shizuka a chance to attend, but he had refused. He wanted her birthday to be special for several reasons, and he wasn’t willing to wait another year! In all actuality, he was willing to wait until Doomsday if necessary, but Isono and Mokuba had made him promise that he wouldn’t let anything stop or delay the wedding. They had seen Sara excited about her birthday for first time in years, and they didn’t want to disappoint her, so they went ahead with their plans, and set up a live video feed so Miho and Yugi could watch and participate in a way. Sara had wanted Jou to have as much or as little involvement in the wedding as he wanted, but he has been firm in picking the place and keeping it a secret, the rest he would do as Sara wished. And it worked fine, they didn’t want too many people attending, only very close friends and family, and those seemed to be even less than planned, but they were so happy that it didn’t matter. One other thing Jou insisted on was on Sara wearing white. She was reluctant, didn’t feel worthy, it didn’t matter, but no argument could sway him, and Greta cheered for him silently, knowing how important it was for Sara, so finally, they went looking for a dress that Sara could love, and they found it. It was very simple, but beautiful and comfortable, so comfortable that Sara joked she could use it as pajamas! After the shower and a light breakfast, Greta fixed her hair while Ryou put on her make-up. Once they were ready, they went to the limo and covered the windows so Sara couldn’t figure out where the wedding was going to be until she was already there. Jou even had rented a golf cart to take the bride and her bridesmaids to where the ceremony would be taking place. Once she saw where it was, she was forever thankful that Ryou had insisted on waterproof make up, or she would look more like a raccoon, she was crying so much: Jou had decorated her gazebo for their wedding because “I wanted Kit Kat to be here with us”. Nobody had explained why Sara called her son Kit Kat, only Jou knew, and that was fine by them, and it moved Sara to see how much Jou loved her and wanted to honor her past, her son, and also build a bright future together. Isono had almost broken Jou’s ribs when he had found out the place he had in mind for the wedding, and seeing Sara’s joyful face, he almost crushed the groom again, but refrained himself and just held his wife tight. The ceremony was quick and simple, and the absent friends cheered when they were declared “husband and wife” and Sara was the one that initiated the kiss. After the ceremony they went to Atem and Yugi’s house to have their wedding breakfast with their bed ridden friend and her husband, and then open presents while they were still together. Sara had refused a bridal shower for unknown reasons, so they decided to give her the presents they bought for her and the ones for the reception at the same time. Atem had situated his wife on the couch so she could enjoy her time with their friends while still resting, and that allowed all of the wedding participants to gather close by to see the newlyweds open their presents. Sara complained that most presents were always geared towards the groom, so she didn’t see the point of her being there anyway, but Bakura stopped her with a sharp look; he knew Ryou and Yugi had spent days looking for the perfect present, and they wanted to see her face when she opened it.  
“So, ain’t I enough present for you?” Jou wiggled his eyebrows in what he hoped was a sexy move, but just made Sara laugh.  
“Your presence is required to open presents, but that’s about it” Malik said.  
“There, now you are the perfect present” Sara put a bow and piece of wrapping paper on her husband’s head, gave him a kiss, and continued opening the present in her hands. She gasped when she saw what it was, and got teary eyed, Jou looked over to see, and didn’t quite understand why she would be so emotional about 5 massages until he finished reading the coupon “5 massage classes of any kind”.  
“We thought that, well, you know, massages would be a good thing if Jou was the one doing them, don’t you think?” Ryou was doubting the wisdom of her gift when she saw the lack of reaction, and hid her face on her sleeping son’s neck. Sara just went to hug Bakura to death and told him that that one was for Ryou, since she was too busy at the moment.  
“I’m going to enjoy this VERY MUCH” Jou said with a goofy grin on his face, imagining how he could help his wife relax, and the reward he could receive.  
“Stop drooling and open this, you dork!” Malik shoved another present to him, and when he opened it, it was Sara’s turn to drool. A gorgeous suit that she was sure would fit Jou as a glove was in the package, along with a hat and long coat, her dream outfit. It was Malik’s turn to be tackled. Jou wanted to try the suit on for Sara, but she stopped him whispering something in his ear, making both of them blush, and kiss for a while.  
“HELLO!! There’s still other people around here! Get the presents done so you can get down to business!” Bakura, crass as ever, managed to stop the love fest.  
“Open this next!” Mokuba gave them matching envelopes. It was the deed to the condos right next to the ones they owned at the moment, and some plans for connecting all units, while still being able to have their own space. “That way, mom, dad and I can be in one, you guys in the other, we visit often, but you have your space, and when I want to move out, I just have to move next door!” it was a brilliant idea according to Sara, and she was very pleased.  
“We changed your tickets and hotel stay to add enough time for the builders to be done with most of the remodel, so you guys don’t have to worry about anything” said Isono, giving Jou the new tickets, extending their stay by 3 weeks “And don’t worry about work, that’s they joy of owning your company and having plenty of willing and able partners”.  
“This one is from Miho” Malik gave Sara a large envelope “and she is working on the next one” Sara saw several drawings of her with Jou, the gang, and even some of Mokuba, Isono and Greta. “She’ll make the other one with the pictures from the wedding” Malik explained.  
“Yugi, come on, she’s going to love your present!” they heard Atem say, when Yugi was trying to move to take hers back. “She spent hours working on this, seriously guys, I went all over the place setting it up, and now she thinks you’re going to hate it because it isn’t as great as the other ones”.  
“Yugi!’ Ryou chastised her, waking up her son, who wailed for a few seconds, and went back to sleep as soon as Bakura held him “I saw it myself, it’s fantastic, she’s going to go crazy over it!”  
“And you were worried that all presents were going to be for me. So far, I’ve gotten nothing for myself!” Jou teased.  
“Ain’t I present enough?” Sara quoted Jou, while gently taking the present from Yugi out of her hands. When she opened it, she laughed, and hugged Yugi as well as she could while she was laying down.  
“This is just part of it, the other part is over there” Atem pointed at a bigger box by the wall, and when he saw what was inside, he laughed.  
“You guys are lucky I’m not a jealous man!” Atem and Yugi’s present was a complete set of dishes and silverware, Batman themed.  
“Well, I guess then this is perfect!” Jou gave a box to Sara, and it contained a Batman toaster.  
“Fine, fine, I am a huge dork, SO WHAT!” Sara complained, giving Jou his present. They all gasped when he showed the beautiful crocheted blanket showing Mr. Jou and the words ‘established’. “You are missing the other one” and Jou got out the other one, showing Mrs. nouchi and showing the date. “There are buttons in the middle, so we can put them together on the bed, and take them apart to wash them. I just couldn’t see myself toting that thing around if it was a whole blanket, sorry dear” she put them together showing a picture of two people kissing. It was gorgeous, and looked like it had taken quite a long time to design and make.  
“How long did it take you?” Greta asked.  
“2 years”  
“What? We weren’t together back then!”  
“Wishful thinking?”  
“More like, ‘this guy is such a great catch, I better make sure he ends being mine at all costs’, don’t you think?” said Jou, kissing his wife.  
“No, it’s more like ‘poor guy is going to end up alone his entire life, I’ll take pity on him’ type of deal” teased Malik.  
“No, it was more of a ‘MINE!’ deal, alright?!” clarified Sara, kissing her husband again. They laughed, and Jou smiled into the kiss, happy to know that his wife had wanted him for that long.  
“Wait, how did you to this?” Greta asked, seeing a little picture on the blanket on the Mrs. side, a picture of Kit Kat.  
“Oh, I had somebody do a laser picture on a piece of material, and sew it into the blanket”.  
“Why do you always call him Kit Kat?” Atem wondered aloud, hoping that this time, they’d get an answer.  
“I couldn’t let Gozaburo know his name and, well, I had seen Jou eat a Kit Kat and he looked so… desirable that I decided to nickname my son Kit Kat, to honor a love that I thought would never be”.  
“I keep telling you guys, I’m sexy even when I’m stuffing my face!”  
“Yeah, and I had an implant that fried part of my brain” deadpanned Sara, making Malik laugh, until the rest caught on the joke, and joined him. “It’s true” she complained, making them laugh harder, and that was the whole point, making someone smile or laugh was something she loved to do. “But implant or not, I think that you’re going to look edible in that suit, and I cannot wait to get you out of it” Jou blushed, and kissed her with so much love and desire, that Isono had to physically separate before they got too carried away.  
“Jiro is getting antsy guys, we’re going to leave soon” Bakura said, gathering their stuff preparing to go.  
“Oh Yugi, before we go, here’s your baby blanket for the hospital, I finished it a while back but forgot to give it to you, sorry!”  
“Oh Sara, it’s gorgeous” the blanket was a faithful representation of the Dark Magician card, Yugi’s favorite.  
“Why is hers so much more elaborate than Ryou’s? Did you get better at it so you could do all the fancy stuff?” asked Mokuba, seeing Jiro’s plain in comparison blanket.  
“Jiro is a rainbow baby, that’s why I made that blanket” Sara smiled, and Bakura gave her a side hug, thanking his friend for her thoughtfulness. “Next baby, I’ll make you a fancy one, your pick!” and hugged them goodbye.  
“Sara, I really appreciate the blanket, is beautiful!”  
“No problem, I’m glad you like it”. Everyone just went back home, Jou and Sara to their own condo, while Mokuba, Greta and Isono went to their new house, next door.  
A few days after the wedding, just a couple of days prior to their departure for their honeymoon destination, Jou went to talk to Isono about something that was bothering him greatly, but was unsure how to tackle it.  
“Dad, can I call you dad? You might not want me to call you dad after you hear this, oh my goodness, you might kick me out of the house and send an assassin after me, you…”  
“Jou, calm down, what’s going on?”  
“It’s Sara, I, we, she, um…” he was beet red, and scratched the back of his head.  
“You haven’t had sex but she is trying to please you other ways?”  
“How did you know?” he was even redder than before, but was slightly relieved knowing that he didn’t have to say it out loud.  
“Did I ever show you a picture of Sara when she was little?” Jou shook his head, not understanding where the conversation was going, but glad to know that the topic didn’t seem to bother Isono too much. He was awed at the sheer beauty of Sara, she looked like a living doll. “Yes, she looked like a doll, and was treated as such by Gozaburo, and punished when she showed any lifelike behavior”.  
“I have so much to apologize for! Oh my goodness! What have I done?”  
“Didn’t you do therapy before you got married?”  
“Yes, but this never came up, except… I remember now, thanks dad!”  
“Love you, son!” he shouted at Jou’s retreating back, and decided to take the rest of his family for an outing that day, there was one last thing he wanted to give the newly married couple before they left.  
Jou went looking for Sara after his talk with Isono had cleared their problem, now he knew what he could do to make sure both of them had a fulfilling intimate relationship. It would take a little time, a little tweaking, but he knew it was possible, and so worth the time and effort. He called her cell phone and asked her to meet him at home in 30 minutes, but knowing her, she’d be there in 15, just to make sure everything was alright. So he had to hurry with his preparations. He was right, she got there 16 minutes after his call, flushed and worried, and hugged him tightly.  
“Are you alright? Is everything…” he kissed her, softly, sweetly, and guided her to the bathroom, where a bath with essential oils was ready and waiting for her, while soft music played in the background. “What’s all this?”  
“I aim to please, because I love you. I want you to enjoy our intimacy too, not just please me, and we’ll take as long as you need to, because this marriage is forever, that gives me plenty of time to learn to please you, mi amor” and slowly, he showed her how much he loved her, how beautiful she was in his eyes, how special their time together could be, and he made sure she enjoyed it at least as much as he did, and both found that trying to please the other was an exhilarating experience in itself. They had a lot of things to learn about each other, but they had a very good beginning.

6 months later  
“Atem, my man! How are you?”  
“Great, exhausted, but great! Having a baby around sure takes it out of you”.  
“Yeah, but I’m sure it gets better as they get older, don’t you think? Bakura doesn’t fall asleep all over the place anymore” they both laughed.  
“You look quite tired yourself, I thought your hours weren’t that crazy” he was concerned.  
“Nah, work is fine, but Mokuba has been hanging out at the house to have Sara help him study, so we are going to bed later, and we’ve only been married for six months, so, you know…”  
“Well, I do, what time does Mokuba leave?”  
“Around 21:30, why?”  
“Going to bed at 22:00 isn’t early enough?” Atem asked surprised.  
“22:00? Try 23:30!”  
“What do you guys do?”  
“Well, you know, it takes a while and, well, YOU KNOW! You’re married!”  
“Apparently I don’t know something!”  
“Atem, lower your voice, Jin just went to sleep, and I don’t want you to wake him!”  
“They don’t go to sleep until 23:30 even though Mokuba leaves at 21:30!” Atem whispered furiously.  
“So?” Yugi was lost.  
“What in the world are they doing that long!” Yugi shushed him again, when he started to raise his voice once more.  
Jou was blushing, “hey, I told you man, we’ve only been married for 6 months, I like the, you know”.  
“For 2 hours?”  
“Well, the before takes a bit, then the, the, the act itself, and Sara likes to talk after for a few minutes…”  
“You mean she talks for 1 ½ hours, right?” Atem asked.  
“No, just about 30 minutes”.  
“You do foreplay for almost 1 hour?”  
“No, but, wait, how long do you do it for?”  
“I think about 20 minutes.”  
“What? 20 minutes? You’re that fast?”  
“Wait a second, how long does it take you?”  
“Between 45 minutes to 1 hour. Sara likes to make sure I get more than one, just like she does”.  
“She/you have more than one?!” both Atem and Yugi exclaimed at the same time, and Jou shushed them, Yugi wouldn’t be happy if she had woken up her little one.  
“Well, yeah, I thought you guys had too, at least at the beginning…” Jou was at a loss, what was he doing wrong with Sara? Was he asking too much of her? Was he expecting too much? He wanted her to enjoy the sex as much as he did, but now he was worried.  
“Don’t you guys…? I dunno, what am I doing wrong?”  
“I think the ones who are doing things wrong here it’s us!” said Atem. “We should ask Bakura, do you think he’d tell us?”  
“Maybe he won’t, but Ryou would” said Yugi, and went to call their friend to figure out who was the odd one in here. A few minutes later she came back, and told the boys that she hadn’t known that men were able to have more than 1 at a time, maybe 2, but breaks were needed in between as far as she knew, and it wasn’t a guarantee. As far as women, she had only known of them having 2, 3 at the most. “You guys are WEIRD!” Yugi said, satisfied, thinking that maybe it was just a fluke, and it wasn’t that she and Atem were doing anything wrong.  
“How many do you have and how many does Sara have?” Atem asked, trying to get to the bottom of this.  
“Me, about 3, Sara, well, between 6 and 8, why?”  
“How long do you go at it for?”  
“About an hour at a time, not including the before and after, don’t you?”  
“Atem, call Mokuba, he’s babysitting tonight, I’ll pay him double! Jou, get out of here, I have things to do” and Yugi kicked him out. Jou was flabbergasted, but tried to not act weird in front of his friends. That night, he confessed to Sara what had happened, and she laughed, and laughed, and laughed, and then, kissed him until he forgot about everything but her. The next morning, an ecstatic Yugi called to thank Sara for opening her and Atem’s eyes to the wonders of intimacy. She knew it wouldn’t be a daily occurrence, they had a baby after all, but it was nice to know of the possibilities when time and energy were sufficient. Sara rolled over and started kissing her husband and told him about the conversation. Jou just said “Maybe we can prove to them that twice a day is doubly good, what do you think?” and so they tried, and it was more than doubly good.

October 24, XXXX  
“Guys, I have bad news, we’ll have to postpone the party, Sara is sick”  
“What? What a bummer! Is she contagious? Maybe it’s just a 24-hour bug” said Miho, who had been looking forward to giving Sara her painting. She had worked very hard on it, it had taken her months, but was so worth it! Thanks to Sara she had been happily married to Malik for 3 months now.  
“It’s more like a 9-month bug Miho” muttered Jou “shoot! Don’t tell anyone please! She doesn’t want anybody to know, please Miho!” pleaded Jou.  
“Wait a second, is she worried about losing the baby?”  
“How did you know?”  
“I think I can help, well, my mother can help. She’s a nurse, an OB nurse, and there’s this machine they have that lets you hear the baby’s heartbeat, and they made one for personal use, and it might help Sara. I’ll ask her, I’ll call you back” Jou waited nervously, and sighed in relief when she called again. “She can come to my house, my mom will bring the machine to let Sara hear the heartbeat as long as she wants, and show her how to use it, I think it would help her greatly, and Malik will be here too, that should help” Miho said.  
Jou sighed in relief, and told her that he’d bring Sara the next evening so she could try the machine. They had an appointment in the morning to see how far along she was, and try to calm Sara’s fears. “Where does your mom work at?”  
“Dr. Mays’ office, why?”  
“Well, I guess we’ll be seeing your mom sooner than we thought!”  
“Why not KC doctors?”  
“She doesn’t trust them anymore, she found out that the one Gozaburo used was part of his usual staff”.  
“Dr. Mays is incredible; you’ll love her”.  
“Thanks Miho, I really appreciate your help”.  
“I’ll tell my mom about Sara, they have that machine there for mother’s who’ve lost children previously and are stressed over it, they sell them at cost”.  
“Fantastic”.  
“You spilled the beans to someone, who?” Sara asked, while Jou was still on the phone.  
“Miho”.  
“Fine, I guess she can come with Malik tomorrow then”.  
“Malik knows?”  
“Jou, if you’re going to talk to your wife, hang up, alright?”  
“Sorry Miho, talk to Malik!” and he hung up.

At the doctor…  
“Sara, you’ve told me about your fears of losing the baby, because of what happened before, well, we have something here that might help. Nurse” Miho’s mom came with an ultrasound machine “we can take a look at your baby, and try to figure out how far along you are, is that alright?” Sara nodded. “Do you want your friends here?” Sara held onto Joy and Malik tighter, and nodded again. “Well, this is exciting”. The doctor looked, gasped, looked again, talked to the nurse, looked again, and smiled. “The doctor looked, gasped, looked again, talked to the nurse, looked again, and smiled. “Sara, you are not having a baby” she blanched, her heart dropped and she thought she was going to die “sorry, shouldn’t have said that, you aren’t having only ONE baby, you’re having 2!” Jou fainted, Malik shouted, Miho started crying, and Sara just gaped in awe. Miho’s mother was trying to revive Jou, and the doctor had to dry a tear from his eye. He had read the information on her chart, he had found the records that Gozaburo had tried to hide, and knew of the deep pain that his patient must have felt, and felt blessed at having had the opportunity to give her such great news. Once Jou finally woke up, the doctor showed them the babies, and told them that she was about 10 weeks along.  
“Twins, Sara, you’re having twins”  
“Don’t you mean ‘we’, Jou?” teased Malik.  
“What? You and Sara? What?” he was still slightly dazed.  
“He means we as in you, my dear Katsuya, and I” and Jou kissed her, like every time she said his name.  
“I still don’t understand what is it with you and hearing your name! what if I say Katsuya, will you kiss me?”  
“Argh, it sounds horrible when you say it Malikins!”  
“Don’t call me that, I hate it”  
“As much as I hate you calling me Katsuya”  
“Excuse me? This is MY doctor’s appointment, for MY babies, and I want to know what I have to do to make sure MY babies are happy and healthy, so shush” Sara said.  
“You’ll be a great mom, you already have the mom voice down” said the doctor. “The nurse will give you some instructions on what to look for, phone numbers to call, and everything you need to know. There is also a lot of good information on support groups for first time parents, birthing preparation, parents of twins, etc. And if you have any questions, just give us a call, and we’ll help you. Do you have any questions for me before I let you go?”  
“Will you deliver my babies?” she asked, shyly. She really liked her, and felt safe, a rare occurrence where doctors were concerned.  
“If you want me to, of course I will” and she promised herself that she would move heaven and earth to keep that promise, even if it meant taking breaks during work to make sure she was able and ready to deliver these precious babies, because she felt a special connection with this young mother.  
“Thank you doctor”.  
“Nurse Brown will be setting you up with the machine to take home with you so you know how to use it, and you can keep an ear on your precious babies as much as you want, alright? I’ll see you in about 4 weeks, take care of yourself in the meantime, and happy birthday”.  
“Thank you” Sara said, and she meant it, it was the first time in her life that she did not feel the need to fear her birthday. “Feliz aniversario, mi amor”.  
“Feliz aniversario”.  
“And here they go again, all mushy…” Malik smiled, knowing that these babies had healed a part of Sara that nothing and nobody else could have done.  
After they were set up with the machine, compliments of doctor Mays and her staff, Jou decided to treat everyone to dinner that night to celebrate Sara’s birthday, and announce the incredible news. It looked like there would be a party after all! “We’ll meet at Yugi’s, and we can order the food once we’re together” Jou said, making sure that Sara was going to be alright with the get together.  
“Why not tomorrow?” she was still slightly apprehensive.  
“Tomorrow is Saturday, which means extra work for Yugi and Atem at the shop, remember their pre-Halloween sale? Miho and Malik will be going to Ishizu’s for their weekly dinner, Ryou and…”  
“Alright, alright, we’ll do it tonight” she gave up, she wanted Jou to be happy, and if getting together is what he wanted, she’d do it for him.  
“Sara, if you don’t want to, we don’t have to” Jou worried that it might be too much for her, and wanted to give her a chance to say no without feeling guilty.  
“It’ll be fine, amor, it’ll be fine” she assured him, giving him a peck on the lips.  
“Alright, let’s call everyone and make sure that people can come”.

At the party…  
“SURPRISE!” Jou shouted to everyone “I’M GOING TO BE A DAD!”  
“JOU!” Sara said.  
“Payback for the engagement surprise, tesoro”.  
“I guess we’re horrid at surprises” Sara smiled.  
Everyone started talking at the same time, they wanted to know the due date, gender, how long had they known, etc. Jou was being bombarded with questions, because Bakura took Sara aside, held her tight and asked “Are you alright?” and Sara cried. She cried in fear, relief, hope, joy, everything all at once, and when Malik saw, he shielded them from view by talking to Ryou close to the pair, but far enough to give them so privacy. Once she calmed down, they rejoined the rest of the group, with nobody else being the wiser, except maybe Jou, who snuck his arm around his wife’s waist and kept her close the rest of the night, even when they were wildly gesturing when speaking, they had it figured out somehow so they wouldn’t hit the other, it was impressive to see, and very funny, since every once in a while, one of them would duck when the gesturing got too wild.  
“What I want to know is that the deal is with Katsuya!” Jou grimaced hearing his given name.  
“I told you not to call me that Malikins!”  
“Malikins?” Bakura snickered.  
“Yes, what of it, cuddly-bear?”  
“Cuddly-bear?” Atem laughed really loud.  
“Don’t call me that, choco-muffin!” yelled ‘cuddly-bear’.  
Jou and the girls were all laughing, seeing the rest of the boys yell at each other the pet names they loved their spouses using, but wanted to keep private.  
“Anyway, how comes Sara calls you Katsuya every once in a while?” asked Yugi, getting distracted immediately by the two little boys trying to leave the room. Sugoroku came to the rescue, and just took the toddlers to the play room, where he could keep an eye on them while their parents had a little bit of a break.  
“Why do you guys want to know so badly?”  
“We all know everybody’s nicknames for everyone except yours, you keep using mumbo jumbo” grumbled Bakura.  
“It’s called Spanish” Sara responded sleepily, leaning on Jou’s shoulder.  
“Exactly, mumbo jumbo, but why can you call him Kat… his given name, and nobody else can?” Malik didn’t want to antagonize Jou any more tonight, but was very curious as for the reason.  
“I’m his wife, that’s why, because if all socks were purple, nobody would wear dress shoes” Sara answered, almost asleep.  
“And that’s our cue to go home and get you to bed” Jou tried to get up, but Sara prevented him.  
“We’re already sleeping! If birthdays didn’t exist, nobody would be fat, and dodos would still be pink”  
“I had never seen her like that!” Yugi giggled.  
Malik rolled his eyes “remember the cat in the movie? Is she still looking for it?”  
“Oh, so you are the one she went with? She just told me that there was this cat in a movie, and nobody believed her, so she keeps renting it and looking for it. She doesn’t want to buy it in case she is wrong, but she keeps looking for the darn cat”.  
“Cat? What are you talking about?” Bakura was at a loss, and he didn’t like not understanding.  
“’Reign of Fire’, Sara watched it with me in the theater, and she wondered what a cat was doing in a castle going downstairs. Of course, there is no cat, but she’s convinced there must be one somewhere”.  
“Well, maybe it’s the one that came into our bedroom the other night, through a closed door” Jou snickered, remembering the many funny things his wife said when she got sleepy.  
“Cats are spirit animals, so they would like dragons, but I don’t remember a card with a powerful cat, do you? Maybe it was a friend of Red Eyes”.  
“Don’t try to understand, half the time is nonsense”.  
“My brain is too smart for aliens”. Jou shrugged, since Sara had just proved his point.  
“Before you take her to her own bed, can you please tell us WHY is she the only one allowed to call you by your given name? It’s driving me nuts!”  
“I should take her home”.  
“Won’t you tell them why, Katsuya?” Sara whispered, half awake, and Jou whined, and proceeded to kiss her deeply, forgetting everyone around them.  
Bakura grinned, nudged Malik and pointed at them, Malik nodded in understanding and said “Yeah, it’s time for bed. It was great getting together, but it’s getting late” he grabbed Miho’s hand, and started to say his goodbyes.  
Bakura went to get his son from the playroom so they could go home themselves, and Atem followed him, to start getting his son ready for bed. The girls were flabbergasted, the boys had been so insistent in trying to find out why Jou only accepted Sara saying his name, and now, they seemed to have just given up on it, very odd indeed.  
Jou was still kissing Sara senseless, until Malik cleared his throat, so they stopped, reluctantly “Okay big boy, we get it now, get her home and let her rest. Sara, love, stick to the mumbo jumbo nicknames for tonight, all right dear?” he kissed her cheek.  
“Your scars made you beautiful, brother” he nodded. To everyone it sounded like nonsense, but to them, it held a deep meaning.  
“Don’t grieve for what isn’t, love what is Miho” how could Sara, even half asleep, understand so much about what her friends were going through, and tell them what they needed to hear? It was a mystery bigger than Jou’s name usage.  
Everyone left to go home, and the girls asked their husbands what was with Sara and Jou and his name, and it would have been very amusing if they had been all together, because the boys just laughed, and said that that was best kept a secret, it was something between Jou and Sara, it was special, and if they ever wanted to share it, they would. When Jou finally got Sara home, and in bed, she turned to face him and said: “Thank you for a wonderful birthday party, Katsuya”  
“I thought you were tired”.  
“Not anymore, Katsuya… not anymore” and they finished her birthday celebration in a fantastic way.  
The machine from doctor Mays proved to be a blessing to both Jou and Sara, since she could feel the babies sometimes, and worried when she didn’t, but since Jou couldn’t feel much yet, being able to hear their beautiful heartbeats gave them peace and reassurance. Unfortunately for the exhausted mother, her freedom to move would soon be thwarted by 2 very eager to come babies. She started having contractions during her 24th week appointment, and the doctor put her on bed rest for the rest of the pregnancy, just as Yugi had been. Fortunately for Jou, Malik and Miho took over most of his responsibilities so he could be with Sara more often, while still working part time so they wouldn’t drive each other up the wall. 3 weeks of bed rest, and Sara was just so exhausted, she spent most of her time asleep, except when Jou was around, and he wouldn’t have found out if Mokuba hadn’t asked him to tell Sara about his grades in college, because every time he tried to see her, she was sleeping.  
“She is wide awake whenever I’m around, I didn’t notice her being more tired than usual”.  
“She sleeps all day! Of course she isn’t tired when she’s with you!” Mokuba was frustrated, he missed his sister, he hadn’t spent any time with her at all for what seemed months, and resented Jou’s time with her.  
“Have you thought about how far along she is?” Greta intervened, seeing her sons ready for an argument that neither would win.  
“Yeah, 7 months…”  
“Oh, no” it dawned on both of them at the same time: Sara had lost her little one at this stage of her pregnancy, and that was one of the reasons why she just slept, she didn’t want to face the fact that maybe she wouldn’t keep these babies either.  
“I’m calling Dr. Mays right now, I want her to check Sara’s health. Is she eating? All she does with me is talk, I don’t see her eating, or anything”.  
“I thought she was eating with you!” Great exclaimed, “all she does when you aren’t around is sleep”.  
Dr. Mays wanted to see Sara immediately, so she told Jou she would stay at her office for a while longer after hours just to check on Sara. Fortunately, the babies were fine, but Sara was slightly anemic, and had actually lost a bit of weight, so the doctor decided that having her in the hospital for a while might be best.  
“No, no, I can’t! I’ll eat like a cow, I’ll gain weight, I’ll be so fat you’ll think I’m having quintuplets! Don’t make me stay, please!!”  
“Dr. Mays will not hurt our babies, Sara, she’s just worried about you!”  
“But what about the other doctors? There are going to be other ones around, and what if… Por favor, no dejes que maten a mis bebes, te lo ruego!”  
“Is there anything else we can do? I think it would be worse for her to stay at the hospital…” Jou had just realized how deep Sara’s fear ran, and even though she had made great progress over time, there were times like now, where things went back to square one.  
“If you let me put a PIC on you, I’ll let you go home, but I want you to come here every week to weigh you, get a blood test, and check on the babies. You’re almost done, but the longer those babies wait before they come, the happier we’ll all be” Sara agreed to having food and medicine given to her intravenously until she had gained some of the weight she needed, and Jou would bring her to the office every week at closing time to have a quick check up for the next four weeks, when dr. Mays would go on leave, and then she’d go see her at their house. It turned out that it was an excellent idea to have Dr. Mays coming to check on her, because the babies had decided to test the theory that 37 weeks of gestation was enough. Sara started having serious contractions, but Jou hadn’t had much sleep the night before due to Sara’s discomfort, and she wanted him to get his rest, so she didn’t say anything until the doctor came to check on her.  
“What are you doing still here? You’re in labor! Get ready, unless you want the babies to be born at home, but with twins…” she couldn’t even finish.  
“Labor? Babies? WHAT?” Jou shouted, waking up suddenly, “get moving ladies, we’re going to the hospital 5 minutes ago!” and he got ready faster than Flash.  
The labor went faster than anyone had expected, and the twins were heavier than anticipated, weighing 8lbs 6oz each. They were 2 beautiful, identical baby boys, and Jou was so happy, he hugged every single person he met, and told them how beautiful his babies were, how amazing his wife was, and when Yugi and Ryou showed up, he fainted.  
“Oh Sara, they’re beautiful!” Yugi said, holding one of them.  
“How did you manage it? They’re big!” Ryou commented, wondering how she would manage with her second child in 7 months’ time.  
“I hope your baby won’t be as big as these ones are, Ryou, but being your second delivery, it should be easier, don’t you think?”  
“When were you going to tell me?” Yugi asked.  
“We were going to tell EVERYONE when Sara brought the babies home, but she cannot keep her own surprises, how can I expect her to keep mine!” Ryou teased. She kept forgetting how Sara had guessed so many things that she thought were well hidden from others’ eyes.  
“Come on Ryou, it’s so obvious! You and Bakura are the worse ever at keeping pregnancy a secret! He goes all googly eyed, hyper protective and clingy, and you just glow brighter than the Sun, it’s obvious!”  
“Yeah, obvious to the one who sees cats in castles” Yugi said, laughing.  
“Well, maybe they can consider your kids twins, aren’t you going to have them at about the same time?”  
“How…? Never mind! Ryou, just remind me to never try to hide anything from Wonder Woman here, alright?”  
“Of course she’s Wonder Woman” Jou said, having woken up from his impromptu nap just in time to hear Yugi’s comment “and I am honored to be her husband”.  
The nurses awed hearing Jou’s comment, and seeing the love oozing out of their very pores. Dr. Mays was very pleased with how the labor had gone, and Sara seemed to be doing as well as could be expected, but now, the new family needed time to bond, so she shooed everyone else away to do a checkup.  
“Thank you for my babies” Sara said.  
“You should thank your husband over here” she wanted to tease, but understood what Sara meant, so she said instead “you’re welcome”. And after some instructions, they moved the little family to the room where they would spend the next few days. Jou was holding both of his children, beaming proudly, and showing them off to all passersby. It was an unusual sight, since the hospital preferred to carry the babies in their bassinets, but they made an exception this one time. Sara was falling asleep on the wheelchair, so they let her rest for a while after teaching her how to feed the babies, and Jou was torn between following them for their bath and tests, or staying with his exhausted wife. A kind nurse made it easy for him by telling him he could go with her, so his wife could rest for a while, so he did. He was astounded at the sheer magnificence of his children, identical twins! He was smiling so much, he was sure he’d have a sore face for a week!  
Life back at home was hectic for a while, and the new parents were very thankful for having the extra help of Isono and Greta for the first few weeks, so both exhausted parents could rest. Life was good, life was beautiful, life was hard, but Jou and Sara weathered it together, births, deaths, gains, losses, ups and downs, they grew closer and more united as time went by.  
“And they lived happily ever after. Time for bed guys!”  
“Grandma!!!”  
“Who? I don’t know any grandma”  
“Abueli!!”  
“Yes dear?” Sara smiled towards her grandchildren.  
“This time you made it short!”  
“Yeah, what about uncle Malik? You didn’t talk about him so much!”  
“Yeah, what about me, sis?”  
“I love you bro, but tonight was all about me!”  
“Yeah, yeah, you birthday girl, milk it while you can!”  
“Grandma isn’t a girl, she’s an old lady!” shouted Gina, her 4 year old granddaughter.  
“Who called grandma an old lady?” shouted Jou from the door “whoever did it, is going to get tickled for 5 whole minutes!” so everyone admitted doing it, even though they hadn’t, they loved when grandpa tickled them, and uncle Malik joined in, making it more fun.  
“Next time, la abuela is going to make you fly! Don’t forget, she’s the highest black belt in this house!”  
“She can’t make us fly, abuelo, she’s too old” said Jay, their 8 going on 80 grandson.  
“Ooooh, Sara, did you hear that?” Malik wiggled his eyebrows, knowing what was coming.  
“Clear the room, Jay is going to fly!” Jou gathered the rest of the children, and let his wife teach their grandson a lesson he seemed to have forgotten. Carefully, she threw Jay onto the bed, and told him what she had said many times before “Do not judge anyone too hastily, you never know what they’re capable of”.  
“I bet whatever you only threw me because I’m little”  
“Volunteers?” Sara asked.  
“Malik, my man, I love you like a brother, so go ahead”  
“Jou, she’s your wife, I’m sure she’s thrown you before”  
“Exactly! And I don’t want to go flying again!”  
“GERARD!” they both shouted at the same time, and the bodyguard came out of seemingly nowhere.  
“Yes sirs?”  
“Sara requires your assistance” Jou had his goofy smirk full on, and Gerard blanched.  
“No sir, she isn’t going to throw me again, I’m very sorry, but no!”  
“One of the new guys maybe?” asked Malik.  
“They’ve all been thrown at one point or another, they’ll refuse sir” Gerard answered.  
“Then who?” Malik asked.  
“You guys are sissies, grandma is just an old lady and…” Jono, Jay’s father, came in the room, seething at hearing his son talk about his mother like that.  
“Don’t you DARE talk about my mother that way, do you hear me? This woman here” he held her close to him, and she smiled “has more courage and gumption in her pinky than all of us put together, and more kindness in her body than the whole town! Don’t you ever disrespect her again! Mom, you can throw Jack, he was finishing his name earlier today”  
“Jono…”  
“I didn’t use any bad words mom” his smirk was identical to Jou’s, which made her soften quite a bit.  
“Alright, call him up” and as soon as he came in, he wanted to flee “nope, Jay needs a lesson”.  
“Then Jono should be the one going flying, not me!” Sara gave him ‘the look’ that had made grown men quake, and her husband hid behind Malik, just in case. “Fine, but Jay, disrespect your abuela again, and you’ll receive “the doom” at my hands. Go ahead mom, I’m ready”. They both bowed, got into position, and faster than Jay could blink, his uncle was sprawled on the ground, with grandma’s fist an inch from his nose and her knee on his chest. “Man, I’m gonna be sore tomorrow…”  
“No you won’t, you know mom had put extra padding on this room so she could train and not get hurt! Your uncle is the old man, Jay, not grandma” Jono said, helping his twin brother up.  
“How did you do that grandma? Will you teach me?” Jay asked, excited.  
“No, I will not. You need to respect others before you can even begin to learn any of these things, understood?”  
“She’s right Jay” his father said “she is a 9th degree black belt, and she taught us quite a bit, but we first had to learn to be kind, so we wouldn’t misuse our knowledge”.  
“Maybe then you could teach me dad! Please?” he pleaded, but Jono was firm, respect was one of the most important things that his mother had taught him regarding martial arts, and his son needed to learn some before he could start, or he might misuse his knowledge.  
“Prove to your father that you can be respectful, and I’ll teach you” Sara said, giving him a hug.  
“Okay, everyone go to the living room so we can sing one more time before you go” Jou herded everyone out.  
After the family left and Malik went to his side of the house (he had been living with them since Miho had died, and moved into Isono’s house to help Greta after Isono passed away), Jou grabbed his wife’s hand and took her to their bedroom.  
“Te amo, Sara”  
“Te amo” they kissed.  
“Say my name” he begged, “say my name”  
“Te amo Katsuya” they kissed deeply, passionately.  
“Say it again” and she did, “my soul thirsts for you” and his name was the last words that came out of her mouth that night.


End file.
